A Demilich in Tristain
by Shadenight123
Summary: A Demilich would kind of hope to be left to toy with adventurers for the rest of his unlife. Instead, because a god has a hidden agenda, he ends up in Tristain, misunderstandings ensue next. M since a Demilich is a Demilich, attempt at Humor/Drama. completed 13/06/2012 Familiar of Zero/ Dungeons and dragons crossover
1. Chapter 1: Presenting the Demilich

Chapter one.

Artos Basileus Sfor, Wizard Ruler of Necros, city of a thousand souls, many of which trapped into undead rotting bodies moving along or shambling around lazily, was laying his skull in rest, at the top of his wizard tower. Thinking back about his past, he couldn't help but feel utterly satisfied as to where he had finally come:

First he had been a Wizard for over sixty years, then he had become a lich for over three hundreds, finally, after a long and perilous journey of *Self Discovery* which meant pillaging and destroying three to four churches of Nerull, he had gazed upon the secret to Demilichdom after more than four hundred years. He had actually completed said ritual, sending back hordes of goody two shoes heroes and paladins of sort, and had suddenly realized how he missed being able to use hands to do stuff, it was a petty thing, but to him petty things were useful. Sure, he shouldn't be bothered by it, why would he need hands anyway?

As long as his phylactery stayed near the stuff he wanted, it was like wearing it all along, but something on the back of his head told him he was bothered by it, and usually that something was right. Probably just to shut up his inner self, who he had come to affectionately call *Opposite me* as it always was brought up to counter any arguments that Artos himself proposed, to double check and be sure about it, and to concentrate back on his studies on how to grab a spark of godhood, he had actually created an Epic spell of his own, which he had called, in a fit of inspiration, *Coin Flip*.

On one side, there was him, the Demilich so powerful and so outright evil that even Nerull's clerics took points from him, on the other side, there was *Arty* and, at that thought, he actually shivered. Arty was good. In the puking sense of the term, the spell had its vantages, as it made *Arty* completely safe from being even so far as confronted to Artos, but, at the same time, brought forth a couple of disadvantages. Arty simply wasn't as bad as Artos, but they both had the same powers and abilities. Except the undead immunities, since Arty was alive and kicking. You still don't get where the problem is? Well, on one side you have a hurricane of utter destruction and desolation, on the other one of utter creation and safety. You get it now? How can you raze a kingdom if you later on find out *Arty* has brought it back?

The stuff was that of nightmares, actually, because *Coin flip* was useable only when the subject was willing to change, and no compulsions would work. This meant that Arty had actually enough time in the world to fix everything, and then go back to being Artos.

All in all, Artos hated Arty, the problem was that Arty pitied Artos, and did all it could to make him look like a nice guy. Even if it meant speaking to a vampire about how no, Artos didn't get to know his mother at all and was thus always on the verge of crying, and that thus he shouldn't act so evilly with him.

Really, Artos hated Arty. Yet he had uses for him, and had to keep him at bay, but there were times were he had hoped he had never developed that *Coin Flip* spell.

* * *

Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière stood forward, hesitantly looking at everyone else of her class, who, thanks to conjuring their own familiars, had advanced to the second school year. She, instead, was still there, trying, and trying again with the summon servant spell, but to no avail. As she tried her best to keep back her tears for the humiliation, she began chanting once more, thinking to herself:

_Please, anything or anyone will do. Please! _As the words for the chant became more a pledge to a higher god than an actual summon servant.

"By the power of the summoning circle and the elements, bring forth my divine and powerful familiar, please, I beg of you!"

And at that moment, someone, sitting atop a golden throne, with sun images depicted everywhere, decided to take two pigeons with a single stone. At a flick of his wrist reality itself bended, and what was never meant to be, suddenly became.

* * *

As darkness loomed over the room, they knew they were going to die. They had tried their best to slip by unnoticed, the zombies and the skeletons had given the wizard an easy time to cast Hide from Undead, the ghouls and the ghasts too had been fouled by that trick. They had gotten close to being discovered when a vampire actually asked a question to one of them, but they kept being silent, and he cracked a joke on how Zombie's redeeming qualities seemed to be their being shambling like limbo dancers, because their limbs danced... horrible crack joke. They finally entered the final room of the tower, where the phylactery of the Demilich was supposed to be hidden. A simple enough room, with a bed, a dresser, a mirror with a set of elaborated golden motifs, an unholy altar on which a small metal box stood, covered in complex arcane writings, the wizard had done his best not to face palm at the scene, and they had outright ignored the open window which gave on a windowsill. The Rogue of the group moved first, searching for magical traps, and when he gave the *All is fine* signal, the mage took his turn, using his Silenced Detect Magic, Detect Traps and Detect Undead just to be sure there were no shadows hiding inside the altar. When, except for the overly magical and oppressive aura of the room, no traps were detected, and no undead, he too gave the *All is fine* signal.

So when the Cleric held high his sword and muttered the Flame Strike, together with the wizard casting the Disintegrate spell, darkness loomed into the room from their backs.

It has to be said: nobody should be that idiotic to believe that a phylactery would be left so out in the open, Artos himself, looking at the scene from the window, was actually surprised by how they managed to get this far. Heroes hadn't always been so stupid, but maybe they believed that, since they had avoided an entire army of undead minions, it would be easy enough. Artos himself had hidden the phylactery on the most impossible place in the world to be found, so, nothing less than him telling them where it was would have worked, and he wasn't Arty.

The spell had kicked in the moment they had set foot in the tower, but they hadn't realized it. The darkness by itself was a simple Ghoul touched with the Blacklight spell, who was moving slowly into the room, in the darkness, it hid what was a nice ensemble of Artos' servants: a mummy Lord, a vampire Lord, a greater Death Knight, and his most favorite servant of them all, a Banshee.

As the Banshee began her wailing, Artos didn't feel like staying to watch the group's demise, and simply left with his flying skull towards a run-down building, which once had been a church of Pelor, but which was now completely empty of everything, and had been tarnished in every way possible, before finally becoming the new prison for the intruders.

"So, your friends have failed" the one who spoke to the captured and bound elf ranger, who had been sent the night before into town, was actually an illusion of Artos, in a more human form. He'd have loved to make some sort of melodramatic entry, but had refrained from doing so in order to avoid wasting spells. The humanoid form had been that of him as a lich, since, after all, nobody would be that stupid to yell out loud that a Lich had risen of rank into the Demilichdom. Doing so would bring other liches around, to inquire on how he managed the feat, and he had all but a will to share his knowledge.

* * *

"Miss Vallière…is that a pile of stuff?" professor Colbert asked curious, as when the dust had finally set, something had shined on the grass of the academy courtyard. A skull, covered in jewels stood there, atop what seemed to be a small metal box, closed and on which seemed to be written strange runes, which flickered against the sun's light with a horrible glint, underneath it, a pile of objects, of various forms, like girdles, staffs, rings, robes, and much more stood.

"Professor Colbert, this has to be a mistake! I mean…I summoned…what I actually summoned was this!" Louise was shocked at the sight, did she vaporize her familiar? Was it wearing all that stuff before dying off?

"That's Louise the Zero for you! Objects instead of people!" yelled someone from the student's crowd as many more began to laugh out hard.

"Miss Vallière, I am sure that once the contract will be completed, everything will be explained…while it does seem a bit macabre…try using the skull as a focus, maybe it's a sort of golem," Professor Colbert hazarded a guess, curiosity taking the better of him.

Louise slowly moved forward towards the skull, gulping down nervously.

_I'm going to kiss a skull, for founder's Brimir sake, I'm going to kiss a skull!_

* * *

"Still not speaking?" the illusion of Artos insisted.

"Never! May Elhonna guide me through the darkest of paths for I will…gah!" he screamed as a surge of pain echoed in his body, as strength abandoned him the illusion placed a hand on its temples.

"Let me think about it," the illusion began walking around the Ranger, hands behind its back, it gave a small kick to a broken Pelor image before turning, once more, towards the Ranger.

"You should never say never," as the illusion said that, another sharp pain hit the Ranger, as his will grew weaker, it started crying, he never thought he'd die like that, he hoped at least in a quick death in battle.

"You know, I'm going to keep you alive, flail you alive, have you suffer all possible tortures, burn you a bit, then heal you all up to torture you again," the illusion grinned, if an undead illusion of a lich could grin, "and then, I'm going to actually read in your mind, find your family, and butcher them all in front of you, until nothing remains! HOW DOES THAT SO…" sound. That was what Artos would have liked to say, but suddenly a sharp pain hit him all over. As he yelled his anger and frustration only one thought crossed his mind:

_The phylactery! THE PHYLACTERY!_

As Instant Refuge cast itself, after the first condition of them all had been cleared, Artos found himself brought through the plane wheel, the clockwork patch of Mechanus hailed him as he went, and finally, he stumbled into the complete darkness of the negative plane, before merging himself with a strange sensation, like going through marmalade, to the…other side.

The kiss to complete the summoning was done, and suddenly, the skull shone brightly, slowly floating upwards. Professor Colbert was quick in grabbing Louise and throwing her backwards, raising his staff toward the skull. The skull had seemed just a normal skull, yet, why did all this malice seem to suddenly sprout from it? The grass underneath it began slowly dying, turning greyish, then rotting as a nauseous stench filled the air. The students stopped laughing, as a dark sort of portal appeared, and echoes of cold made them all shiver and look scared. Many of them outright cried for their mothers, or ran away; even without knowing the reason, many familiars turned nervous and tried escaping the courtyard, without consideration.

Louise stood there, shocked and surprised, when the skull slowly stopped shining, settling on a floating height similar to that of a normal humanoid, Professor Colbert was covering her, his staff raised high in front of him, and Louise would have never thought to see the professor so serious.

As the skull stood silent, Louise grabbed enough courage to stand up, and yell at it:

"Hey you!" raising her wand high in the air, she yelled again, to get more courage, "I'm speaking at you! Familiar of mine!" then Louise gulped hard, as the skull settled its jeweled eyes on her and slowly floated closer.

"Did. You. Just. Call. Me. Familiar?" the skull rattled, expressionless, and, as Louise nodded vigorously, it began laughing hard, flying around.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! FAMILIAR! ME! OH MY! THIS IS UTTERLY…" then the skull fell down on the ground lifeless, rolling forward in the grass for a bit, before beginning to slowly float again.

"This isn't…" as he said that, he suddenly realized something, and floated straight back in front of Louise's face, which fell down surprised and scared.

"YOU! YOU DAMN BRAT! WHICH GOD IS IT YOU SERVE! Is it Nerull? Wee Jas is the culprit? Was it Hextor? Don't tell me it's Olidammara, because I'd rather destroy myself against a wall than serve under an Olidammara's cleric."

"I…Shut up!" Louise yelled back at the skull, which rolled on his back, as the stuff on the ground suddenly started floating, and circling all around him.

"I'm not giving it easy to you however! You will never claim the powers of Artos Basileus Sfor! FLIP COIN!" and as he said those words, suddenly, with a loud crack, the skull was gone together with the box.

The clothing, the staff, the stuff which had fallen suddenly appeared like being fitted on someone, and then, after a brief flash of light, a man stood there.

Wielding his staff in his right hand, with fiery red hair, and green eyes, his skin as pale as white could be, his physique tall and slim, it looked down on the girl, and slightly down also on the professor, who was still trying to decide wherever to cast a spell or not.

Louise had no idea what to say, if to say anything, seeing how, on the schools courtyard, only she and the professor remained, and the skull suddenly turned commoner, obviously.

* * *

First thing, Artos had dived straight through the negative plane, that is not a nice experience even in the darkest of nights, yet, he had done so, or better yet, he had been obliged to do so. Finally, when he had emerged to the other side, he had seen wizards wielding wands, and a wizard wields a wand only to cast destruction spells. So, as quick as he could, he unleashed his full repertoire of Fear Aura and Withering Aura, quickly followed by Mage armor and a Shield spell. Since nobody had attacked him, but many had scrambled in fear, he had stopped to ponder on the situation.

_Clearly something is wrong. Doesn't seem to be damage on the Phylactery. What's up with the wizards here though? Not knowing who they were summoning? Wait. Summoning? Oh no you can't._

That's when the girl had yelled at him, calling him a familiar.

_Me? A familiar? A familiar is something like my crow Guendaline. Not something like a Demilich. I mean, who'd conjure a Demilich as a familiar? A god? Is this the realms of Gods? Maybe kid gods. I mean, some did scramble away crying for their mothers. Doesn't seem so divine, however._

Ignoring the girl, he had tried to move away, just to find out that his magical powers seemed to exponentially diminish, to the point of him falling on the ground. He stood there for a second, to think some more, before rolling back, and later flying back, in front of the girl.

_It must be a really expert cleric which brought forward a summoning! The negative plain didn't have someone strong enough, and so they sent me! DAMN IT ALL. Whose god is she devoted to? Anything but Olidammara is fine, heck, it wouldn't matter even it were a good god, because once dead I'd return to my plane…wait, my phylactery is here. If I die I return here. Do they plan on using me over and over again! OH NO! THAT WON'T WORK ON ME!_

That was why Artos had used his epic spell, *Flip Coin*, which merged his phylactery, which held his soul, with his Demilich skull, which held what remained of his body, into the living body of... Arty.

Arty gently bowed his head, with a sorrowful expression, before whispering in a quiet, gentle tone, completely the opposite of Artos' one.

"I'm very, very sorry for the problems Artos has caused…he can't help it, really" as he said that, Louise stared at him surprised, while Professor Colbert looked at him with a more clinical eye.

"Are you perhaps a mage, mister?" the Professor asked, seeing how the other man had a staff with him.

Arty shook his head with a worried expression:

"No sir, I'm a wizard" which actually would be a synonym of mage, thought Colbert, but maybe it held a different meaning where he came from.

"I summoned a talking skull turned commoner" Louise muttered, not believing her eyes, or her ears.

"Oh, you were the one to summon me, gracious one?" the man asked, kneeling in front of the girl with a wide smile, which made Professor Colbert, for a second, forget about how the guy had many explanations to give, or how dangerous he actually seemed to be.

Louise nodded silently, still shocked for a moment at such a fast change of situation.

"What is your name then, gracious one?" as Arty asked with a small smile, Louise couldn't help but blush a little, as she slowly whispered it once.

"I couldn't hear you, gracious one"

"Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière" she repeated slowly.

"I am Arty, wizard of the royal court of the Island of the Ghorzun," at least, seven hundreds and more years ago, he was, "And I hope we can be friends in the future, not master and familiar. Is it fine with you, gracious one?"

Louise couldn't help it, she simply nodded, the way his voice spoke was so gentle, so nice, so clear and crisp, it was like having the fresh wind from the mountain blowing on her face, and he looked so beautiful too!

Professor Colbert on the other hand was a man, and at that, a researcher, so, when he heard *Arty* speak, he finally gathered enough courage to ask:

"What is your connection with the skull? He called himself Artos, which I can't seem to ignore being the full name of your own. Are you using some sort of illusion magic on your own?"

Arty showed Professor Colbert a saddened face, before shaking his head and standing back up, to speak with the professor at the same level.

"This is not an illusion, but I must admit I do share a connection with Artos…sadly we are one and the same, two souls trapped inside the same entity" as he said that with a saddened expression, he looked to his own feet, like he was ashamed of something.

"Once we were one and the same, but nearing the end of life he grew bitter with how he would be forgotten, given time…so he did it. I cannot speak of it, less he comes back, but you must realize that he isn't evil, just…misunderstood" as he pleaded, Colbert too looked strangely curious.

"Is it some sort of contingency in place which prevents you from speaking?"

"Worst, it's the spell per se" Arty replied, "I am alive only as long as I stick to the rules of the spell"

"The spell…it was called…" Colbert tried saying more, but Arty suddenly yelled:

"Don't say it! Don't!" and Colbert shut his mouth up.

"However, I must ask of you, what task is it that I must comply with? What rewards is there for the completion?" Arty had actually thought the summoning to follow the rules of his plane, which, after all, were pretty simple: conjure something, speak with him to ensure loyalty for a task, or send him back home if you couldn't pay him.

As the man slowly looked down on Louise, the girl looked back up, with a slight increase in nervousness, she finally spoke:

"You are to be my familiar until death do us part" as she said that, Arty himself felt the magic stir around them, more precisely, inside of him. Placing his hands on his chest to feel the beating of his heart, a thing he usually did every time he took Artos' place, he saw runes shine brightly on his left hand.

"Oh…the reward is this, right?" as Arty asked he began looking at the runes on his hand with more interest.

"What do they do?" showing them to Professor Colbert, who looked at them with a surprised expression.

"I don't know…just a minute" as he said that, he took out a scrap of parchment to jot them down.

"I'll research them in the library later"

"Library?" Arty's ears could have actually been seen going up.

"Yes…this here is the Magic Academy of Tristain" as Professor Colbert explained it to him, Arty couldn't hear him.

"Libraries are filled with books. I love books! Do you mind if I read them?" he was hopefully asking, and actually, even Colbert at this point was having a hard time saying no to him.

"I'm sorry, but books are for the students, the staff or nobility…and unless you're a mage…" as he said that, the face the familiar made was so heartbreaking that even Colbert himself was starting to think how horrible he was.

"I see…well then I guess I'll have to speak with Miss Louise…" as he said that, with a slightly saddened expression, he looked down to Louise who had already decided she would grab a couple of books and hand them over straight away to Arty.

"Oh yes, oh my look at the time, it seems its gotten so late! I didn't even realize it" with such a hurried tone, Colbert levitated out of the way, and directly through a window, which probably led back to a classroom of sort.

* * *

"So, this is your room?" Arty asked looking at the wide room he had been invited in. It didn't look bad, but obviously he had seen better, and worst. On a corner some fresh hay had been deposited, like if some sort of animal, a dog maybe? Had to sleep in there.

Louise grew more embarrassed by the second, and decided to call a maid to bring in something to eat and drink. Arty watched the food come in, and realized the girl had ordered for two.

He smiled at her sadly, but shook his head.

"I do not eat" _Wouldn't feel the taste anyway._

"Oh…I know this is not on the same level of a royal cuisine but…" Louise fidgeted as the maid, a raven haired girl who looked to be from the Orient, was waiting to know if she had or not to remove the plate with the food, a stew of sorts it would seem.

Arty couldn't help but chuckle, the girl thought he was one of those darn nobles all haughty and high, no, he had been an adventurer for most of his life, so he wasn't at all haughty, and he would have even killed for a bite at that stuff…but he simply couldn't let food go wasted, considering it would probably be given to one of the servitude, if he didn't eat it.

"Oh, no, it's not for that reason, I'm sure whoever cooked it would do an excellent job at that, but I simply do need sustenance…magic ring" as he said that, he pointed to a ring on his hand. Actually, the ring was there just for show, as he no longer needed it, but a Ring of Sustenance had been the very first ring he had bought, because, obviously, who would drink water from the countryside's wells during the black plague?

"Oh! You may take this away servant" as Louise said that, she sat down, but still didn't start eating. The maid bowed her head slightly and left with the untouched platter.

An embarrassing silence soon filled the air, as Arty had been silently looking around the room for anything which resembled a book of sorts. Maybe it was in the dresser, but it could also be inside the drawer, or maybe a book would hide himself in a bed-table of sorts.

In the end, Louise broke the ice:

"You said you are not a mage, right?" as she asked that, she took a sip of wine from the glass in front of her. She couldn't be more than sixteen years old, and yet she drank wine and not water? Wasn't there a cleric to purify water around here? Now that he thought about it, he had yet to see any religious symbol. This was an academy of magic, alright, but still, Boccob or Wee Jas used to have an altar of sorts somewhere. Heck, even Nerull had one, in some academies.

"No, I am a wizard" as he said that, Louise looked at him with a dubious expression.

"Wizard and Mage are synonyms, aren't they?"

"I don't know. Tell me what a mage is, and I'll be able to answer you" as Arty said that, he crossed his arms in a thoughtful way, letting his right hand fiddle with his chin.

"Well, a mage channels the energy of the elements from outside, like fire, water, earth and air, and uses them to form spells, the more powerful a mage becomes, the more strong its spells can be. They can also be tied together to form lines, or triangles, or squares even."

"This seems so much like a Shugenja with its elements thing, but you do not seem to have any tenant of a Shugenja" which would be not bathing, not using things of a color, not eating certain foods and so on. Sure they could sense their favorite elements miles away, but all one had to do was throw a Disintegrate at them, and they would fall like any other.

"Shu…shugenCia?" Louise asked surprised by it.

"A definition for arcane based individuals who practice said art through the connection to the spirits of the world; by choosing their favorite one they renounce entirely another one"

"I see, so you're a wizard, what is it that you do? You collect magic trinkets?" Louise was actually curious about the ring, no eating nor drinking, yet he didn't seem famished or suffering from malnutrition.

"No…well, every wizard choses a path, in which it specialties lay. Or it can choose to walk upon all of them" as he said that, he grabbed a strong metallic covered book from thin air, making it appear and opening its nearly infinite pages, at least to Louise, those pages did seem infinite.

"This is Boccob's book, an artifact on which a wizard may write any spells she wishes, to prepare them later at leisure" as he explained, Louise realized the man had some sort of fond recollection about certain pages, as it stopped on them for a bit more than others.

"Boccob? Who's Boccob?" Louise asked curiously.

"The god of knowledge and magic, one of the gods of the Pantheon…"

"Nonsense, the only god is Founder Brimir! The Founder who brought the people of Halkeginia to safety against the elves!" so she had summoned a *wizard* and a heretic. As the youngest of the La Vallière family, how could it turn any worst?

"Wait. Pelor? Heironeus? Hextor? Nerull? Fharlaghan? Elhonna? Obad-Hai? None ring a bell of sorts? None whatsoever?" as Arty said that, a more than worried expression appeared on his face.

"No! Only Founder Brimir exists! Why are you spouting such nonsense, stupid familiar?" as Louise said that, she placed a hand in front of her mouth only moments later. She didn't want to offend him!

Arty was actually sweating pretty hard, like he was scared of something.

_Oh. Oh. AHAHAHAHAH LET ME OUT NOW. LET ME OUT. LET ME CORRUPT, CONQUER AND DESTROY. LET ME RULE AND RAVAGE. LET ME PILLAGE AND RAZE. I'M GOING TO BECOME A GOD RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH YES! YES! HEY. _

Arty tried his best, keeping his eyes closed, muttering prayers to himself, searching for some god, anywhere, who could help him, but it was true, there were none nearby.

_Hey Arty, good old side of a coin, let's swap back, okay? Now that we know enough…_

_Shut up!_

_Ehi ehi, no need to be so nervous. You know eventually I'm going to come back, right? There are rules out there, eventually the magic will work its way._

_I'll find a way._

_You won't, because you can't destroy the coin, Arty. Give up, I'll make it quick for them._

_No, never._

_Suit yourself._

"Is everything fine?" Louise asked, having stood up and gone near her familiar, who had some sort of spirited sight to him.

"Yes! All is fine, really. I just need some time to think by myself…"

"Sure, I had thought my familiar would be a monster of some sort, so I had prepared some hay, but…" as Louise said that, the man snapped his fingers, and a sort of bright white door appeared.

"If you need me, I'm in my Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, have a good night of sleep" and with that, he opened the door and entered, closing it behind him without a sound.

Not uttering a word, Louise crept onto her bed, rolling over to the side every now and then to realize that yes, there was now a door in her room and that yes, her familiar seemed able to use really strange magic too.

_Just what did I summon? _Louise thought to herself before falling asleep.

As Louise dreamed, she saw devastation all around her, looters and pillagers in a small town next to a river. In that river, under a bridge, drenched by the cold water stood two children, a boy and a small girl, they were both holding their breath and staying silent, as nobody had still seen them. That was when she felt a fit of fear coming from her back, and turning around, she saw what looked like a really scary mercenary, wielding a giant broadsword in only one hand, looking him too towards the bridge, with amusement. A coarse voice came from within that helm, but she couldn't understand what he was saying. What happened next, however, made her understand: two burly men armed with axes moved towards the bridge, and grabbing the two kids, which the mercenary on a horse had seen, they separated the brother from the sister, and while throwing the sister in a sack, because they were slavers, that much Louise understood, one of the two planted an axe straight through the kids chest, the cracking sound was sickening to hear and Louise turned around in fear.

Turning around, all that she saw was an ample black mantle, coated with fur, and slowly raising her head a scream pierced through her mouth, as atop a skinny, skeleton like body was a horned skull, with at its neck a set of smaller skulls, wielding what looked like a scythe, then, she woke up.

She woke up in her own bed, as light slowly filtered in, looking to her side, panting to catch breath, she could see the white door still there. She stood up, grabbing a towel to remove the sweat from her body before quickly dressing up. He wouldn't let her familiar catch her naked, now that she knew he was probably a mage too, albeit what he used to define himself had a different name. Then, she moved towards the door and, without knocking, entered.

**End of Chapter One**

**Practice makes perfect.**

**This time, it's crossover time. **

**First off, I use the *everything goes* in the dungeons and dragons campaigns I actually Master. That said, I never used tome of battle or tome of magic, but I will make references to spells from various books, and from various planes, however the plane the Demilich comes from is custom, and the Demilich himself is a mish-smash of all the various mages/liches characters I ever played. Together with the Demilich final thing I never managed to. It's 3.5 ruleset edition, and since a Demilich is actually a pretty GS 29 encounter, this one is a GS 39. So yes, he could, willingly, kick ass to literally all the continent, twice. Will he or will he not? That's where the serious/humor part will kick in. Furthermore…couples?**


	2. Chapter 2: The Price of Power

Chapter Two

Louise rubbed her eyes in surprise, then she pinched her own cheeks, then, finally, she tried to slightly slap her face. Still seeing the unchanging scenery in front of her, she looked back, and, sure enough, she could see her room on the other side of the open white door, which on this side seemed to have been placed in front of a really high hedge, which circled the entirety of the garden in which she found herself in.

The garden sported many and all different types of plants, trees filled with fruits, and animal-form hedges which kind of seemed alive, since she could have sworn a pelican-hedge had smirked at her.

Was this actually the *magic* of a wizard? She stumbled forward, onto a white cobblestone path, for a long while, deciding that her next target would be the strange and utterly magnificent mansion in front of her, which not only rivaled, but even made the one of the la Vallière look like a pig sty, and she couldn't come to terms on how there could be a pool outside the mansion, with white sand and a completely different climate. The weather itself was sunny, albeit there seemed to be no sight of the sun, but as soon as she reached the door of the mansion, it changed to a cool afternoon, with the same light of a setting sun.

She decided to go for it and knock on the door through the strange gargoyle-formed clapper, and as the door swiftly opened, she started saying:

"Just what is this? What…AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" the rest was a scream, as she ran as fast as she could back on her tracks, and back into her room, closing the door behind her while panting and shaking from the fear.

_A ghost! I have seen a ghost! My familiar is inside that strange mansion with a ghost!_

She took some time to calm her nerves, and when she did, she decided to open the door once more, and doing that, she was greeted with the sight of the ghost himself, who looked faceless, but dressed in a sort of butler attire, which didn't sport legs however, since it instead had that sort of single ethereal tail common in some type of horror stories.

If it could have looked at her, it would have probably assumed a *what is it?* since he couldn't, he simply made a small bow and invited her in once more.

Louise gulped hard, before nodding to the ghost and standing back up. It seemed the ethereal figure himself couldn't leave the mansion, so, before stepping in, she asked in a hesitant voice:

"Is Lord Arty in there?" she had used the Lord without thinking, but better not to seem all haughty with ghost servitude. The butler replied nodding more strongly.

"Can you tell him I'll be going to breakfast?" as the ghost shook his head she realized he couldn't talk because he had no mouth.

"So…can you bring him here?" Again, the ghostly figure shook his head.

"Are you telling me *I* should go and look for him?" as the Ghost nodded once more, Louise clenched her fists and closed the door on his face. It didn't slam like she wanted, so, taking her stuff, she headed towards the breakfast room, alone.

As soon as she sat down, she was obviously the remark of snickers and laughter, and she couldn't do anything but stay silent about it. She still didn't know if what she had seen was the truth or not, but something was starting to form into her head; a feeling that, deep down, she was going to show them, really show them, that she wasn't Louise the Zero anymore.

***Elsewhere***

"I was mixing Alchemist fire" Arty muttered half covered in soot, as the ghostly butler, one of the many, many ghostly butlers which came along the mansion's spell, tried to mimic some strange scene, after having slowly crept towards him and shaken his shoulder. That was because the butler knew it was Arty. Hell, all the butlers, the ghostly butlers, knew that Arty wasn't Artos. Even when the spell conjured the mansion, if it had been done so by Artos, there would be skulls, rivers of blood, dark broody moods, black marble staircases and a tall and slim tower, and they'd be bossed around without rest; the exact opposite of Arty who treated them like humans, for the most part, and thanked them every time he asked something to be brought to him.

"So…something walked in? Then ran out? Then punched first base? Slapped someone? Slam? Slammed the door? So, someone walked in," _has to be Louise, I suppose, _"then walked out scared," _which I suppose was because an ethereal butler isn't something you'd expect, _"finally she closed the door behind her firmly…because she went to…eat? Right?" as he asked that for confirmation, the butler enthusiastically nodded, and Artos sighed, standing up and cleaning his work bench. What remained of it anyway, and thanking the spell Energy Immunity set to fire, he went for a quick bath, before heading out, dressed in his usual adventurer attire. It had been a long time since he actually had a bath, or donned his adventurer clothes, but now the problem remained with the other side of him.

_You are awfully silent._

_I know you'll slip Arty, you all slip. I don't because I'm me._

_You know I'm going to be far more careful than usual._

_I don't care. You'll slip, and I've got time, heck, you heard the girl! *Until DEATH do us part* do you know how many things I can do to have the contract finish?_

_I won't let you._

_Try, oh please, do try. I'd love a challenge of some sort…I'll win in the end, but please, do try._

Gritting his teethes Arty closed the door of Louise's room, and stopped once in the corridor, trying to figure out where, exactly, students had breakfast.

He slowly moved along the corridor, and stopped the first member of the servitude he could find, which turned out to be the same maid of the night before:

"Excuse me miss, may I ask you a question?" he gently queried, with a small smile on his lips. The maid actually stopped for a moment, trying to recall if, maybe, he was one of the staff or a student. Heck, he could pass off as a student, he just had the spell right for the trick, but he didn't want to.

"Certainly, my Lord," as the maid said that, bowing her head, he dismissed the title with a hand gesture, "Please, I'm no Lord,"

_So Says the Ruler of the city of Necros, destroyer of good, reaper of souls, whose kingdom of undeath spans from the mountains of the Fertek to the plains of Terenestia. No, you are not a lord huh?_

_Shut up!_

"I'm just Miss Louise's familiar, you can call me Arty," as he said that, he bowed his head again, to return the maid's head bow.

"Oh! I'm sorry then Lo…Arty, since you told me your name, I'll tell you mine: it's Siesta. What can I help you with?" she asked again, this time with a bit more of complicity, maybe she just liked him, no doubts when you have on your shoulder a certain mantle of charisma…

"Where is the dining hall in the academy?" he asked, "And where is the library?" he asked again, with a slight glint of interest in his eyes.

Siesta did even more than explain it to him, she guided him along the way, talking about little things in the meantime, the weather, how it was strange that a commoner turned a familiar, and, by the end of the pleasant chat, Siesta even asked him if he wanted to read some of the books she had, but he gently refused. Titles like *A Maid and the Duke's Lance* where not his interest.

By the time he entered the dining hall, the students were about to finish eating. Arty realized that there were two levels, the lower one, which had the students all on one table, but separated to the sides depending on the color of their cloaks, and the upper one, which had the professors.

He recognized where the pink-haired Louise was sitting, among the second students, and kind of saw how even those around her made at least a spot open on both sides, except one, on her left, where there was a fat blonde guy who took every chance he could to *expand* himself at the damage of the young girl. Silently, he moved to the back of Louise and coughed once.

"You don't mind giving me your spot, and going running laps around the school, right?" as he said that to the blonde boy, his words powered with a Immobile Dominate Person, the boy silently nodded, and standing up left the dining hall without uttering a word, at a running speed. The spot free, albeit with a shocked stare from Louise, Arty sat down, smiling warmly to the girl.

"There you go. I felt you needed a change of scenery" and by change of scenery, the first year on Arty's left couldn't help but nod too.

"The seat is only for noble mages, not for brutish commoners!" a blonde guy said, straight in front of Arty.

"Sorry, but he did leave me his spot…you should speak with him while running laps too" and, again, the Blonde guy nodded, and standing up he exited the dining hall with a running speed.

"What are you doing?" Louise whispered, after having grabbed him by the neck and brought him closer to utter those words in his ear.

"I'm sorry…I just live with the motto of giving respect, if you wish to be respected…should I snap them out of the enchantment?" he asked, much candidly, as the students around didn't hear him, however, Louise shook her head.

"No, they could use losing some weight" with a small giggle, Louise finally began finishing her breakfast, for once free from being pushed to the side by a fat mass of lard.

***Afterwards***

They were sitting on a bench, in the Vestri courtyard, as it seemed that the day would be given off to the students, so they could familiarize with their familiars. Arty was already nervous the moment he sat down, because he was pretty sure he'd have to lie again.

_Now Arty, no need to be nervous, you just have to tell her the truth, how you became a being of unfathomable darkness and destruction and then how your powers are nearly on the par with a god. I'm sure she's going to like it when you'll tell her of the eight souls you sacrificed for Demilichdom, or of how you killed and turned to undead over a thousand and more persons, or maybe there's that one time where…_

_SHUT UP ARTOS._

_To think the little princess even cried when you snapped her neck._

_SHUT UP. YOU DID THAT._

_Tell her that. Tell her how you brought to ruins a kingdom with your own hands._

_NO!_

"Arty…are you there?" Louise queried, pouting; sometimes it seemed her familiar was so lost in thoughts he lost track of his surroundings.

"Oh, sorry, you were saying?" Arty shook himself back into the present, to stare at the girl, well, there was some resemblance with the past…but the princess had blond hair, not pink.

"I was asking you where is the royal court you served in, as librarian," Louise said, "you spoke of the Island of Ghorzun…was it there? Where is it in confront to Germania? Or Gallia? Or Romalia? Is it a moving island like Albion?"

"Ehm…no. It's in another plane," Arty replied, shaking his head, to clear his thoughts.

"Another plane?" Louise was curious, because she had never heard about it "What do you mean?"

"Well…for starters, this is the table's surface," saying that, Arty knocked on the wooden table once, "that is the earth's surface" as he said that, he pointed towards a patch of grass.

"They are on different heights, but are in the same plane. The material planes are an ensemble of planes who find themselves in *sweet spots* in the middle of the spinning wheel," Arty then casted Silent Image, to show a picture of the wheel turning around, and some points brighter than others, "Many planes are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, though, like the plane of positive and negative energy."

"Is this another Wizard spell? How can you cast it without a wand?" Louise asked her mouth agape at the sight of such a beautiful, yet complex, mechanism spinning in front of her.

"Well…I'm pretty good at magic" Arty replied sheepishly, as the spell disappeared, not before something big, and round, and soft hit him in the back of the head, actually, it was two big things.

"That was wonderful! Do it again please!" the voice came from a redhead, with tanned skin, who had proceeded to try and engulf Arty in her wide and literally humongous chest.

Next to her stood a blue haired girl, who was wielding a staff in one hand and a book in the other.

"Zerbst! Whose familiar do you think you're touching?" Louise yelled, banging her hands against the table, not making the Zerbst girl stop her assault in the slightest.

"Louise the Zero actually had the guts to hire a mercenary mage…to think the explosion nearly fooled us!" the girl replied, sticking out her tongue towards Louise.

Arty in the meantime was looking at the scene straight from behind the blue-haired girl's back.

"My name is Arty, pleasure to meet you" as he said that, smiling happily towards small girl, his hand upwards for a handshake, the girl replied by moving her staff towards his hand, and use that to shake it.

"Tabitha" she replied.

As that scene unfolded, the red-haired girl looked downwards, realizing that she was embracing her familiar, Flame.

"What? How!" was the general question both she, and Louise, had.

Arty simply stared at them raising an eyebrow; "Wizard Trick" was all that he said, since Benign Transposition was more of a trick to him, like a cantrip, rather than a spell.

Louise couldn't hide the smudge look on her face anymore, as it was slowly becoming a grin. Just how powerful was her familiar? She'd have to ask, but not there, but slowly, the thought crept in her mind…she could have pay back for all the snickers and remarks…

"I am Kirche the Ardent…the more you try and escape, the more I'll desire you…" the red-haired girl moaned, looking at Arty who was, instead, interested in the book Tabitha was reading.

"Seems like I can't read your characters…I'll have to use Comprehend Language, is it a nice book at least?" completely ignoring Kirche's attempts, as he easily moved to always have Tabitha cover him.

"Yes" Tabitha replied silently, as she moved to sit down in front of Louise, who was watching the scene unfold with a stupid grin on her face.

Without Tabitha, all Arty could do was start running, thanks to the Expeditious Retreat spell, he was faster than the Germanian, and managed to tire her up before he did. Not that he could actually tire after so little. He wasn't overcharged with magical items for nothing.

"Darling…please wait! I'm burning all up for you…" Kirche panted, before wheezing down, to lay on the bench right next to Tabitha, as her hard breathing pushed her chest up and down, it made many of the male student population look at Arty like he was a hero.

Except two of them, who came to him wands in hand, covered in sweat from a long, long run around the academy.

Louise was shocked to hear Guiche's words:

"Now listen here, familiar! You thought you could play such dirty tricks on Guiche de Gramont and Malicorne de Grandple and escape unpunished! We are challenging you to a duel! You and the Zero! Two on Two!" as he said that, snickers but also some boos came from the crowd of students, fighting like that was probably fighting two on one, and many thought the familiar of Louise nothing more than a commoner, and the few who didn't think so thought that the only things he was good at was cast some illusions of sort.

That's why Louise stood up, a bit pale, but clenched her fists, "Please Guiche, you can't be serious, I'm sure he'll apologize if…"

"I accept" came the reply from Arty, swiftly, "But, to make it fair, I'll fight you both alone. Don't want you to have a too big of a handicap, so, if there is anyone else who wants to help you, by all means, invite them to the fray" as he said with a wide smile, a loud chorus of laughter erupted from the crowd.

"Two on one isn't something a proud noble would do!" Guiche retorted, angrily moving his rose-wand around.

"I see no proud nobles here, only two snotty brats who have yet to learn of reality" the laughter soon began utter silence.

Both Gramont and Grandple were of noble families, both very influential, and while they were still students, they both knew how to cast decent level magic; yet the familiar challenged them without even a glint of fear.

"Please Arty! Apologize, there's no need to…" _risk your life for me?_ He was actually accepting the two on one to avoid having her harmed, right? He knew some tricks, and while she had to admit the mansion was an incredible magic, it hold no fighting purpose…unless those ghost butlers could pack a punch.

"Arty…you can win this, right?" Louise asked, suddenly changing her words after careful consideration.

"Obviously. Heck, in my good days I can rival the GODS." Saying that, as he was cracking his knuckles, made many of the crowd began looking at each other, before starting to laugh once more: he was mad, that explained it all!

Guiche began laughing too, giving small elbow hits to Malicorne next to him.

"Rival god? Him? Oh, while I admit the skull show was scary, I doubt anyone would…" but his words died in his mouth, as Arty began making the staff he carried with him spin around his left hand like it was the easiest thing in the world.

"Well…" Louise gulped, nervously, "then you can fight them…but don't kill them, please! You can humiliate them, but don't kill them…okay?" as she said that last part, Arty smiled at her nodding.

"Shouldn't you be saying that to us, Zero? We *are* going to kill your familiar" Malicorne said, as he and Guiche took positions on one side of the courtyard.

"No. He's the one going to give you a lesson" Louise replied sharply, and, as Arty took his place on the other side, staff in hand, he couldn't help it, but think about how to solve the problem with the minimum amount of bloodshed.

_I say we conjure an Earth Monolith. Or an army of demons. Maybe a Pride of the Beastland spell, and have the lions tear them a new mouth in their necks. What about disintegrate? We could use a meteor shower, but really, it would be overkill. Wait, that's precisely the point!_

_No. I am not going to kill them. Nor maim or wound them. I know the Coin Flip rules: I will not be permitted to turn to evil, as you will not be permitted to turn to good, we will always swap when such a situation where morale is conflicting arises. _

_You're no fun at all, Arty._

_Neither are you, Artos._

The next moment, both youngsters fell down asleep, all their boasting worked to nothing as Arty waved a hand, and then it was over. Many in the audience looked at the scene blinking, rubbing their eyes, but yes, the two great nobles had fallen asleep, face first, into the ground. They had expected a blood bath, or a sort of magic fight, or anything slightly interesting, instead it was all finished in the blink of an eye. Not funny at all.

Arty couldn't help but whistle his way back to Louise, saying:

"There. Is it humiliating enough? Losing in less than six seconds with a hand wave?"

"…but I thought I'd hear them scream…" Louise pouted, which earned her a shocked look from Kirche and Arty.

"I was joking…" she whispered meekly, seeing their stares.

"How?" Tabitha asked, as she was the only one who actually knew how a sleeping spell worked. For them, it was at least a line spell, with water and air; he had done so without the use of the wand.

"It's a Wizard Secret." Arty replied before musing over what to do now.

"So, Miss Louise, should we go talk somewhere with less audience?" as Louise nodded, they both began walking back towards Louise's room, with Kirche nervously munching on one of her nails, muttering something like:

"I'm going to make him mine soon!"

***Back in Louise's room***

"So, as a Wizard, you know only how to cast non-lethal spells, right?" Louise had taken a hunch; a hunch which Arty thought was too good to let it pass.

"Yes, precisely. We are barred from killing people as Wizards, so we are kind of complementary to you mages" as he said that, he couldn't help but smile gently, and Louise was utterly convinced of his words.

_What a suave liar you are, though anyone with a mantle of charisma+12 would be: it seems like history cycles once more eh? Always been the pretty little liar with young girls. Is she another one *I* am going to sacrifice for power?_

_No. Stop it: you know it is better this way._

_For me certainly._

_With this limited knowledge she will avoid using me for evil, and won't end up corrupted as you._

_As WE. WE are corrupted. WE are the corruption. WE looked straight through the planes of existence travelling through them like they were nothing but stone steps towards a higher purpose. WE are evil Arty, and soon you will fall once more to Evil, because it is in your nature to become ME. You and I are one and the same Arty. Stop fighting it, you are but a fragment of my past self, and you will do the same mistakes I did, and become me once more. So, Arty, give up now, and I'll offer her a quick death._

_Never._

"Arty…Arty!" Louise exclaimed, awfully closed to Arty's face was hers, which made him jump backwards once he realized the position he was in: seeing how he wasn't answering her calls, she had gotten closer, and being him as tall as he was, she had gone on her toe's tips to get a bit higher.

"Sorry. You said something again?"

"I can't stop wondering if you're hiding something and…" a sudden knock on the door made them both turn, as Professor Colbert's voice came through the door from the other side:

"Miss Vallière, I need to speak to your familiar with certain urgency" he sounded a bit nervous, a thing Arty didn't like at all, maybe he was there to punish him for having put two students asleep?

"Yes Professor Colbert, coming soon" Louise had thought the same, and was steeling herself for taking all of the blame on her; she had, after all, given the permission for the fight.

When the door was opened, however Professor Colbert was holding a pile of books in his hands, and delivering them to Arty, he muttered:

"These are all those I could loan out with my professor's status. They should be returned before next week, but I'm sure you'll find them interesting, as much as I did, I hope"

"Thank you, but it will only take me a couple of minutes…if you wish to stick around…" as Arty said that, a set of eyes suddenly appeared, and as the Prying Eyes began looking around, hoping for commands to follow, another spell conjured Mass unseen servants which started grabbing books and flipping their pages. Each book had an eye on it, and the extra eyes instead floated around lazily, while the extra servants began cleaning up the room of Louise, even folding the clothes they found scattered around, or cleaning up with makeshift brooms made of force.

Colbert looked in awe at such a sight. He had no idea how it was possible, but these seemed like a different type of spell from the usual ones, and, if the face of Arty hadn't been of one lost in thoughts, he'd have already asked what he was doing. He felt like a kid watching the scene unfold, an apprentice to someone much wiser. Yet he was the oldest one, right? He was nearing the forties and was already half bald, yet this man was young, strong, and even more was Miss Valliére's familiar. In a couple of minutes, the books flipped to a close, being returned into an orderly pile, and each eye gently took a turn on Arty's hand, as Arty nodded every time, muttering some words.

"Interesting. I see you enjoy the works which bring forth the irony of magic: fire to create, and magic to help those in need, alchemy to produce materials and so forth." As he said that, Colbert couldn't stop himself from asking:

"How did you manage such a feet? They were fifteen books, surely you skipped some pages…I mean, how could…" but then Arty flicked a finger and a book, randomly, was taken and held high in front of the professor, from that page, Arty began repeating by heart what was written on it, even the notes and the description of what pictures were on it.

"I have a perfect memory, Professor Colbert. What I see, I remember. If I hadn't at least this, I wouldn't be able to be a Wizard at all" as he finished speaking, the book pile floated into the professor's hands, and he took them all dumbstruck.

"I do not know the size of the library of this academy, but rest assured that in one day, or maybe two, I'd have already memorized everything in it, such is my thirst of knowledge…nearly like an obsession, you could say," as he whispered the last sentence, something like a sudden realization dawned on him, and he shook his head, taking back his gentle smile once more.

"I must thank you however, is there anything I can do for you?" as he said that, Professor Colbert decided to take the chance, and replied:

"Yes! Could you…teach me your magic?" and with those words, something, inside of Arty, grinned happily.

"It takes a lot of dedication to master some spells…I could explain the basics, but then you'd have to be on your own, because every wizard develops his own style, and for the spells, well, they tend to be discovered by every wizard separately. Furthermore the style *is* completely different. My spells are cast wand-less, and wands are used only to store inside of them more spells, and work on a charge basis." As he started talking, he removed a wand of his own from a small pocket which, by no means, would have been wide enough to hold a wand.

"To say, this is a wand of detect magic. Saying the command word will make anyone, even the most stupid of orcs, be able to detect magic, but it will be temporary, and once the charges are finished the wand will just be a piece of wood" putting the wand back in the small pocket, albeit Louise, the *Zero* actually had an interest in that…maybe she could use it!

"But there is a downside to being a wizard. We choose spells, these spells, albeit a lot, are limited per day to the strength of our minds. They do not come to normal apprentices as easily as you might think. So, I'm going to hazard a guess: what level do you think my spells are, if I were of your magic system?" Arty asked seriously Professor Colbert, who, thoughtfully, began thinking of what he saw…

"Line, or triangle" he replied, and seeing Arty smile, he thought he was right, until the wizard shook his head.

"Wrong. Casting a spell requires components: Somatic, Material, and Verbal and some times, a Divine Focus. Learning to cast without components is a talent some possess and some do not, but it can be taken with enough time and training. What I do and what a normal wizard do are different, but we should speak of this privately. My master is drooling, and I do not want to speak more, with her like this" as he said that, Colbert realized, but Louise did not, pouting and screaming how she was his master, and how she had to know.

"Go to sleep, child" Louise's eyes grew sleepy, and with that, she fell fast asleep.

***In Colbert's Laboratory***

"So, to answer your question…it would be dot." With those words spoken by Arty, Colbert took a seat and a bottle of wine. Colbert's housing was a small sort of warehouse, filled with stuff of various forms and bubbles, ranging from mechanical contraptions, to alchemical concoctions, and all in all, it would have been even fairly big, had it not been utterly messy.

"You have been casting *dot* spells?" Colbert couldn't believe it, the spells all had mind related things, and that was always a line, or triangle spell of water and air.

"All the spells are *dots* from where I come from" Arty replied, "They are divided into schools, which are eight in total: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy and Transmutation, plus the ninth school, which is the Universal one which holds unaligned spells."

Professor Colbert had begun taking notes in the meantime, like the scholar he actually was.

"You cast spells depending on the element type; we conjure forth the raw arcane energy and mold it to our will. If I wish it is indifferent to me wherever I cast a fire or ice, or lightning spell, even an acid spell is easy. We are not *fixed* on elements, but we are on schools. A specialist mages chooses one school in which to specialize, by barring two others, by renouncing specific bonds, he strengthen others."

Colbert nodded: the prize of focusing on one element always came with the drawback of losing power on other elements.

"The way *I* cast spells, and the way an apprentice does are different, too. The spells are divided into circles, from Zero, which are also nicknamed Cantrip spells, to Ninth, plus the Epic spells circle."

"So, the higher the circle, the stronger the spell? Like a line fire mage and a triangle fire mage?" Professor Colbert asked, curious as to why he had then spoken of *dot* spells.

Arty shook his head, "No, because what are found are *different* spells, and the spell grows stronger with the Wizard, but do not change of circle. The higher the circle, the more complicated spells are unlocked, but none are the same, except the normal and the *Greater* variant of a spell."

"I see…it's a matter of skill then" Colbert replied, amazed, "Might I presume you are a skilled wizard then?" Arty pondered, his eyes saddened for a minute, before saying:

"Yeah, you could say I *am* pretty skilled. Though skill is not the only factor: every wizard learns how to eschew components, or how to master some spells at an early age, and then they keep on learning until they grow old enough to embark on a quest for knowledge, which have many apprentice depart, but only a few master return. Of those, only a couple might become more than master wizards, and of thousands, only one, or two, may achieve the highest heights possible and become an Archmage worthy of history." And he had achieved that, and much, much more.

"Why did you not wish to speak of this with Miss Vallière?" Colbert asked, once more.

"Power Corrupts professor. I learnt it on my skin too well. Even the most holy of men is swayed by kind words and promises of powers. As long as Miss Vallière believes I can't cast anything different from petty mind tricks, it shouldn't be a problem."

"But you can cast much more, can't you?" Colbert asked, slightly tipsy from the drunken wine, to which Arty replied with a small smile:

"I can read minds, professor, and I know you are feigning being tipsy, as I know you spied on the fight in the courtyard together with the headmaster, as I know you have your staff ready under the desk. You have been wary of me from the beginning, and I understand that, but know this: I do not wish harm upon anyone, or anything."

Colbert sobered up drastically, and stared at him with an inquisitive stare, but then nodded.

"I will keep an eye on you"

"I would be surprised if you didn't" as he stood up to leave, however, Arty added:

"If you still wish to learn, however, know that I have much to teach"

And with those words, he left Professor Colbert alone to actually drink the remaining wine in the bottle.

***In Louise's dreams***

The library was clean, like if dust didn't wish to fall on the pile of books that were laying, scattered around or even falling down from the bookshelves. There were a lot of bookshelves around there, hence the reason Louise thought it was a library. A really big set of windows brightly shined giving light to the library, which, while not rivaling with that of the magic academy of Tristain, still seemed to be fairly spacious. In front of the only entrance to the library, there was a desk, on which an old man seemed to be sitting, writing with a quill on an old book.

That's when the door opened, and some soldiers, wearing a strange symbol of a dove with a sword in its beak, brought forward a small child. Louise recognized it as the boy who had been driven an axe into the chest, yet he had survived.

The old man looked up and muttered some words in a strange language, to which the men in armor replied.

She didn't know why, but the words held some sort of meaning she was coming to understand.

_Who was the boy? Someone found stealing in the market. Why was he brought here? He's a survivor of the slavers, and the king was in a good mood. What do I do with him? He knows how to write and read. Then I can use him. He's all yours. Be nice or it's the prison for you whelp. _As the boy was left alone, a dirty mess of rags and an afraid stare on his eyes, Louise couldn't help but feel pity for the commoner. As the librarian stood up, and slowly moved close to the boy, the boy stood very still, but did raise his hands to protect himself from what he thought were going to be more hits.

"What is your name, child?" the old man asked, a honey sweet in his hand.

The boy said something then, and at that point, the shock was so much that Louise woke up, because yes, that rag-tag boy with red hair uttered a single word, which however, in her half-asleep state Louise hoped to have confused.

It was _Artos._

Author's notes

**Yeah, Artos is probably going to find a way to make Arty go for Henrietta, just to make him suffer some more later on, when he finally frees himself from Louise. The reason he is not doing more wicked things is, apart from being Arty, Arty, also because *Artos* Demilich form is bound to Louise, by the rules of summoning he has to serve her for a task, a task which needs to have a *end time* Louise hasn't realized it yet, but she did say the right thing. Had she said *Forever* It would have been a worthless binding. Arty being the goodytwoshoes he is, accepted as *prize* a closed box power. The *Gandalfr* one, which to him is basically worthless (Tenser's Transformation) but even then, that closed the deal. **

**Problem is, it's like talking law with devils and bringing order to demons. Eventually a hole is found, and as a Demilich, he's got plans. Lots of plans.**

**Vorpal: I always thought founder Brimir had been *ascended* to divinity…well, it won't change much the plans, so I'll keep it like this.**

**drake202: That's what Arty wishes to avoid. Power Corrupts, Absolute power corrupts even more. That's precisely what Artos hopes to achieve: For every student he gets, Arty gets one step nearer to have to explain something he shouldn't. He already let slip *Necromancy* among the schools, considering in Halkeginia there is but a *ARTIFACT RING* which brings back what? Twelve undead? Think about a daily useable spell which could unleash an undead plague. That's also why Arty isn't letting him out: there are no good clerics, no turning undead, nor rebuking them, and also why Artos wishes to get control: no one in there can stop him, sure they can put up a fight, but they are ignorant of how to actually defeat them.**

**Note: The difference between unseen servant and the *butlers* of Mordenkainen's mansion is that the latter are half-visible with a sort of golden hue, the first one are simply an invisible force.**


	3. Chapter 3: A Haunting Past

Chapter three

When Louise woke up, it was already morning, once more. This time however, her familiar was nowhere to be found. Mumbling something about keeping secrets from her would be impossible ,she realized she hadn't even been undressed: she had simply slept with her clothes on. Cursing the useless familiar, she stumbled out of bed, to at least change into less wrinkled clothes. She looked at herself in the mirror:

_Yes, I'm definitely cute, so why can't they grow as big as Kirche's? Stupid Kirche! She tried to snatch away my familiar, but failed, obviously since my familiar isn't going to believe a word that lousy red head says. Stupid Germanian whore. Just wait till these grow, then I'll show you._

She snickered as she finished dressing up, and after breakfast, in which strangely both Malicorne and Guiche stayed in their places, in silence, she managed to reach her classroom without as much as someone laughing at her. Maybe she was going to enjoy this day, after all. She sat down in the back rows, as always, and her familiar handed her over some books to read.

"Thank…what are you doing here!" she nearly screeched, but controlling herself she actually whispered it, albeit a bit strongly. Arty looked back at her with a *what do you think* expression, before making his own notebook, quill and ink appear.

"Familiars aren't supposed to follow lessons" she whispered once more, but Arty smiled gently to her and pointed at various other familiars around. Sure, they were more like snoozing off, or sleeping, but nobody had quill and ink ready to take notes. Still, since the seats on the back row usually remained empty, she bit her tongue and let him stay there.

"Cat ate your tongue today?" she muttered, staring at him.

"Someone once taught me that questions should come at the end of a lesson, never at the beginning, and certainly not in the middle" Arty replied.

"Why are you taking notes? Aren't you a wizard?"

"Knowing something never bars another knowledge from being learned, Louise," he replied tapping his free hand on the desk, "though I must admit, I'd have expected the professor to be punctual." As Louise was about to retort something, the professor actually entered the classroom, a big round and jovial mage.

"She's an earth type" Arty whispered slowly.

"Hello to all students and their familiars! My name is Chevreuse, the Red Clay! My element is earth and for today's class we will speak about the most basic of things. First off, everyone knows there are four elements, which are?"

As no one raised their hands, Chevreuse slumped a bit, but was revived when one did stand up.

"You are Miss Valliére's familiar, right?"

"Yes, Madam, may I answer the questions you ask?"

"I don't see why not…since nobody else is offering himself to"

"Fire, Earth, Wind and Water, plus the lost element of Void if I'm not wrong" as he said that, a kick on his right made him turn to see Louise staring at him with a slight angered face. Familiars weren't supposed to attend lessons, take notes or even answer questions.

"You are not wrong, are you perhaps a mage?"

"No Madam, just a Wizard"

"How do you know this then? Did your master, Miss Vallière instruct you?" a quick glance to the side of Louise showed her tapping a *yes* with her fingers to Arty, who nodded.

"I see, next time, however, have her raise her hand, I know for sure she's a hardworking student from the previous year teacher."

"I will try and convince her Madam" and another kick to the side came rolling in.

"Now, out of all elements, I believe Earth is the most important, and not just because my affinity is Earth" as she said that, Louise thought how strange it was that her familiar had guessed right. Because he had guessed, right?

"With Earth, we can build rock structures, harvest crops, sow fields, produce and process ores. So it is connected to everything in life"

_Hey Arty, tell her how undead dwarfs placed in forges do the same stuff._

_I am not._

_Then what about undead skeletons plowing and sowing eternally?_

_Can you shut up?_

_What about disintegrate as a spell? That's not earth related. Why don't you raise your hand like the good student you are and TELL HER SHE'S A STUCK UP IGNORANT BABBOON! _

"So, for today, I will demonstrate with this pebbles how to use the Transmutation spell" as Chevreuse said that, she produced from her pocket a small amount of rocks, which were deposited on her desk. With a small chanting, which Arty did his best to copy, she turned them into…

"Is that gold, Madam Chevreuse?" Kirche asked surprised.

_That's Brass, but it is fool's gold, foolish girl._ Artos muttered in Arty's head.

"No, only square-class mages can transmute earth to gold"

_Oh, so that makes us square class mages then? Nice. We kick ass! I always said that this would be easy. I mean, they don't know even the basic…_

_SHUT UP._

"This is but Brass, Miss Zerbst, but now is anyone willing to try it out?" as she asked the question, all the students snickered, expecting Louise's familiar to raise his hand, but he did not.

"Miss Vallière, would you come and show us?" Madame Chevreuse asked, gently.

Louise looked down at her desk and began fidgeting.

"Professor, maybe it is best if Louise doesn't…" but Kirche was cut short by Louise slamming both her fists on the desk, stating:

"Yes! I can do it" as she said that she moved in front of the pebbles.

She raised her wand, and Arty noticed the rest of the class slowly sliding under their desks.

Now, you don't become a Demilich without preparing contingencies against worst case scenarios, furthermore, if you ever do get to become a lich, you actually now which signs give you the all clear to spend an entire week defenseless as the ritual goes on. So, if to all of this you add that becoming a Demilich is even more difficult, time consuming, and requires far more paranoia, you realize quickly that there is no way Arty wouldn't have realized something was off, and would have acted on it. He stretched his hand forward, aiming at the pebbles, preparing himself to try one of his theories he had been rummaging on.

The pebbles shone brightly for a second, and then exploded, or at least, they tried to, as Louise covered her face instinctively, as did Chevreuse, while the rest of the class yelled, something happened.

Quickened Dispel, followed straight up by a cantrip spell called Prestidigitation, and rock pebbles shone as brass, albeit for a little time only.

"This is good, Miss Vallière, though it didn't last, it was certainly interesting to see" Chevreuse said surprised, as Louise had no words, except looking back at Arty, who had silently taken to writing down more notes.

The rest of the class was even more shocked, Louise the Zero didn't seem to be the Zero anymore.

_So they're Sorcerers with a wand fetish._

_Seems … no!_

_Oh, come on, we dispelled that explosion! _

_Or maybe we dispelled the actual spell._

_I think not, we would have needed something stronger than *Dispel Magic*_

_We are master Abjurers. _

_OH, you finally using the *we*?_

_I am a master Abjurer. _

_Yes…_

***few minutes later***

As they were walking along the corridor, Arty couldn't remove the feeling of being stared at. He turned angles cautiously, but every time there was nothing, so he started thinking that maybe it was his paranoia, kicking in once more.

"I have to know: Did you help me in class?" Louise whispered, once they reached a nearly empty corridor.

"I might have dispelled the explosion" he replied.

"Wait, you did what!" she wanted to yell, but Arty pushed a hand in front of her mouth, using the other to signal her to stay quiet.

"Someone's coming" he whispered, as he casually let the Invisibility Sphere on, and pushing Louise, who was furiously blushing, against the wall. Slowly a red salamander strolled by, but after a moment of looking perplexed, she strolled faster down the corridor.

"That was Kirche's familiar" Louise whispered, once Arty let her free to speak.

"So it seemed" as the man moved backwards, Louise couldn't help but try and throw him a kick in the balls for his actions.

"You hit my leg" the man replied with a snicker, "And I don't feel pain, so it's pretty useless" he added then.

As they returned visible, Arty looked to the sides of the corridors, and muttered:

"Listen, I think I might be able to help you out with your magic probl…" but couldn't finish the sentence, that Louise had already grabbed him by the collar, and was bringing him down to her level.

"If you can, do it" she whispered to him, serious.

"It will require training. A lot of training"

"I can have that, as long as I'm no longer Louise the Zero"

_I like her spirit, maybe I could make her into a Banshee. Have her wail around *I'M THE ZEROOO* until everyone drops dead, except the undead obviously._

_No._

_Yeah, she'd be a pitiful banshee, I mean, a kid banshee? Are you KID-DYING me? _

_That was…horrible. _

_You did worst._

_Shut up, why do you always end up there?  
Because I know it still hurts you, and the moment you'll harden to that, is the moment I'll be one step closer to freedom._

"Hey, snap out of it" he heard before a slap ran across his left cheek, and grabbing his surroundings once more, he realized Louise was looking at him with watery eyes.

"Please, just make me someone who isn't a Zero. I'll take your tricks, even the smallest ones, but please, I don't want to be a zero anymore…anything but a zero"

_Anything but an unwanted child. Anything but the daughter of the king._

_SHUT UP._

Arty hugged her for a second, slowly caressing her hair, whispering:

"Shhhh, don't worry…it's going to be alright…you won't be the Zero anymore, I promise" as he said that, he brought forward his right hand, "but you have to stop crying, deal?".

"Deal" the girl said, grabbing his hand in a firm handshake.

_You will never learn…that's why I'm always right._

_Shut up, just shut up._

_You're bound to get hurt, once more, and cast aside, once more._

_No I won't._

_History repeats itself cyclically, unless you wield enough power to break free from its grasps._

_No._

_Suit yourself._

***Hours later***

"We are going to town?" Arty couldn't actually understand why Louise wanted to, but she reddened and sputtered something along the lines of:

"It's a Gift! There are gifts for helping your master avoid an embarrassing situation!" as she said that, she mounted on one of the two horses the academy had provided them.

"Going to town is a gift?" Arty asked once more, mounting the other horse. It had been a while since he had been on a horse. Flying as fast as possible as a skull was easier. Or teleporting. He had to keep in mind not to summon any monster too, in order to avoid drawing suspicion. While he could make a summoned owl pass off as *non-lethal* he might have more troubles with a bearded devil, or an elder elemental.

As the horses went towards the nearby town, a red haired girl looked from the window of the academy, and then with a smile grabbed the blue haired girl, and on top of Sylphid, began following them.

What both weren't expecting was to be intercept by a flying griffon, which screeching at them made them duck to the side in the air.

"Tabitha? What is a griffon doing here without a knight?"

"Strange" she whispered back, as the griffon flapped his wings holding his claws straight in front of him, as his speed increased during a dive, Sylphid was having a hard time staying to the side. When, in the end, Tabitha managed to chant a spell of Snow Storm, directed against the Griffon, the magical beast simply disappeared into the air.

"What happened?" Kirche asked, not seeing any corpse around them.

"Illusion" Tabitha replied, looking in front of them "Lost them".

"WHAT!" Kirche pouted.

Meanwhile, in three hours Arty and Louise reached town. As the wizard descended he couldn't help but start looking around for magical trinkets.

"Hey! I was thinking you'd like a wand of ours…" Louise muttered following the wizard, who seemed to instead prefer to enter an arms shop.

"Hello cust…" the shopkeeper stopped, as he couldn't possibly come to compare himself with the man in front of him.

As the sleazy attitude removed itself, he assumed a more serious form, cracking his knuckles, he knew a shrewd businessman when he saw one, and his guts were telling him that yes, it was going to be a tough fight.

The man went for a sword in the sales department, rusty and which was known far too well by the shopkeeper.

"That sword is rusty" Louise replied, to which Arty smiled back;

"Don't care" as he said that, he realized the runes on his left hand were shining.

_So…Tenser Transformation, we sold our services for a permanency of said magic. Well, with the quirk that we can cast spells. I'm so angry at you right now._

_Shut up._

_It's getting old._

_Silence!_

"Oh you're a user!" as the sword spoke, Arty moved to the counter as fast as a lightning could, and muttered:

"It's free since you don't want it here, right? Scares your customer away I suppose. I'll take care of it for you, right? Talking sword isn't something you can sell easily after all. Furthermore…" Loquacity: A usual Bard's spell was one of the few he had taken time to personally transcript on his book, after torturing nearly to death a gnomic bard for it that is. As the man's pressure grew; the shopkeeper couldn't help but nod. Louise had already gone to her pouch, but stopped midway, leaving the shop together with Arty and the talking sword.

"Never thought you'd get it for free" she muttered.

"Never did I, a Dwarf would have bitten my hand off the sword" Arty replied, raising the sword straight in front of him, and putting a hand on it. Louise kind of wanted to ask but a dwarf was, but stopped as the sword shone brightly for a moment.

REPAIR. REPAIR. REPAIR.

"Ehi, I feel kind of strange…" as the rusty sword said that, suddenly all the rust fell down in a single swoop, steel showed once more, the half broken handle repaired itself, and soon the sword was back to all its glory of the past.

"You're a user AND a mage, partner! It was a while since the last one" the sword said cheerfully, "Man, I feel as good as new! I'm Derflinger by the way! You managed to get me for cheap, but know that I'm virtually priceless!"

"You're a sentient sword, from where I come from, only that makes you cost on the thousands of golden coins," Arty replied, "Considering you should also have some special abilities in you, I suppose you could easily reach the million gold coins…and I got you for free" putting the sword in the scabbard, and hugging it.

"I'm over six thousand years old partner, and yeah, you're right, I do have some abilities, if only I could remember them" the sword replied, cheerfully.

"I've got myself a new friend, one who's even older than me; oh the tales we'll speak of!" as the hug became a sort of compulsive desire to become one with the sword, Louise coughed once, and Arty regained his composure.

_What about me! I'm STILL HERE!_

_You count as the grumpy evil uncle. This sword is older THAN US._

…_I've got no words..._

Louise too was without words, staring at how Arty was carrying the sword like a newborn baby, going as far as doing singing her a lullaby…but then her eyes gleamed a bit evilly.

"Hey…you can also get some jewelry for free?" as she asked that, filled with hope, Arty shook his head.

"Nope, only works for magic items, because you see, the natural resonating magic of the unicorns…" luckily Loquacity was still active, and Louise nodded understanding. Unicorns, darn them!

With the sword bought, they actually had time to walk along the roads with ease, looking at shops without anything pressuring them, and finally, as the long day was about to be other, Louise's stomach grumbled. She had brought a light snack for lunch, and now she definitively was famished, after walking so long. Arty on the other hand didn't seem to have even broken a sweat.

"I'm hungry…" she whimpered, looking at her pouch, then at a sweet shop, at a crepes stall, and at a lot of other unhealthy foods sold around them.

"No. Young girls need to keep their sugar intakes to the bare minimum, less it rots your teethes, we can head back to the academy, if you wish" Arty replied, with a serious tone that made Louise stagger for a minute, he just so resembled her elder sister Eleonore, when she was in her strict mode.

"But it would take three hours, and dinner is probably going to be served in thirty minutes" Louise replied, to which Arty raised an eyebrow.

"Let us go to the horses and you will see." Louise followed, albeit looking still interested at the garbage food being served…all that frying and yet she couldn't have it. Why not? He was her familiar, not vice-versa! However as she was about to stomp her feet and turn around, she looked at the slowly saddening visage of Arty, lost in thoughts once more as he made his way to the stables near the city gates.

_Why does he always have that sad face? Stupid familiar! He's probably thinking something saddening. But I'm lucky I got such a marvelous familiar. He's strong and also acts as a sort of butler and friend. So I need to cheer him up some way! He said he loved books right? So…_

As they were heading towards the stables, Louise looked to her right and to her left, finding a bookstore, a really old one at that too, and she barged in as fast as possible.

Probably with a good run she could then reach in time Arty, or even then she doubted Arty wouldn't be able to find her, considering how many Wizard Tricks he had.

The old clerk of the bookstore looked at her, silently turning another page of a dusty tome, before moving closer with his half dirty and half broken glasses.

"Might I help you, Noble Girl?" he asked nearly wheezing out what little air he had in his lungs.

"I…do you have books about…" what did Arty like anyway? Well, he was always sad, so something to cheer him up, "something funny?" she asked, "like comedy. Or crack jokes or something like that".

The clerk thought for a moment, then asked again:

"Is it for a friend? Is the friend a man or a woman? Young or old? It matters for the book's choice: men and women have different tastes as do youngsters and elderly." The clerk added the last sentence to prevent Louise from actually asking why it mattered.

"He's a man…" and he did seem young after all, "Young, but not as me, I'd say middle ground?" she replied back, "And yes, he's a friend" _Well, a Familiar anyway: a familiar is also a friend, right?_ As she thought that, the man pressed a book into her hands: it looked very old, and seemed to be written in the old Romalian language.

"This should do the trick, and entertain your friend a lot…it holds both old Romalian and new Tristain's languages, so it should be easy to understand."

"How much is it?" the girl asked, moving her hand to her pouch once more.

"No, it's free, a gift for a friend should always be more for the thought than for the money" then the old man smiled slowly, and moved back to his spot, Louise couldn't help it, but left some gold coins in a corner, where the man would surely find them after a while. She exited the bookstore with the book in hand, and sure enough, there was Arty with both horse's bridles in his hands, looking around confusedly.

"I'm here!" Louise said waving at him with one hand, Arty moved closer to her, stomping his feet like someone who was really, really angry.

"Where have you been?" he asked, barely containing his emotions.

_I couldn't find her with __Scrying__! Just where did she end up?_

_I've got a hunch, a really big hunch._

_Say it!_

_Eh…SILENCE!_

"Into the…" as Louise turned around, she realized there was no bookstore there, but a smith, a rundown smith with no customers and even no smiths.

"Bookstore?" she finished the sentence. Maybe she needed some food in her stomach before starting to hallucinate. The book however was still in her hands.

"Anyway! Who taught you to run off when someone's talking? What were you thinking?" yes, the more Louise looked at him, the more she thought he was a mixture of Eleonore and her Father, bundled together into one fiery red-headed man with green eyes.

She looked downwards, then holding the book with both her hands, she presented it to him.

"Here! A gift for you! I went through all the trouble to buy you something to make you smile!" but as Arty read the title of the book he paled even more, if it was possible, his mouth agape.

"What is it? You don't like jokes books?" Louise whispered again, but Artos slowly shook his head, and grabbed the book, handing over to Louise one of the horse's bridle.

"I'm sorry…I was just surprised. Yes, I like it very much," he replied with a strained smile, "now let us get back to the academy, don't let go of the bridle"

***One Teleport without fault later***

Louise couldn't believe it. Arty had touched just slightly the other horse and then they were back in the courtyard of the academy, with a good quarter hour free for dinner. As Louise went for the dining hall, however, Arty looked around, like he was a bit paranoid, before opening the white door once more, into the side of a tower. Tabitha and Kirche looked at him from up above, on Sylphid's back: to them, he had simply walked straight through the tower's walls.

"How did he do that?" Kirche asked shocked.

"I don't know" Tabitha replied in a whisper…that was interesting.

Arty, once inside Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, headed for mansion's library, holding the book in one hand, and a desperate face.

Even Artos stayed silent on the matter, because for him, it held completely different applications.

In the library, the silent servants of the mansion had already done what their master had telepathically ordered them, and prepared the book.

Arty placed both books, one next to the other, and opened the first page of both.

Without a doubt, with the same stains, the same childish writing, the same droplets of ink in the same places, it was written:

_To the always grumpy humpty Librarian of the palace of Terenestia,_

_You should smile more Professor Artos!_

_Your favorite (and only) student, Elizabeth._

_Ps: Please let me off on the next test, I don't like enchantment school!_

It wasn't written in Old Romalian with New Tristain's in front. It was written in Common language.

***Minutes later***

Arty left behind himself a demolished mansion, with little to nothing but dirt, the servants watching from the side, they would have trembled, had they actually any way to show emotions. The only thing they did as he left once more was a sort of military salute. After all, next time around, the spell would probably rebuild the mansion as it was.

As he exited, he realized someone was waiting for him.

"How?" Was the only word the blue haired girl asked.

"IT is none of your business." Was the blunt reply of the Wizard, who moved to the side where the girl's dragon, Sylphid, suddenly placed himself.

"How?" Tabitha asked again.

"Girl, I'm at my patience's limit. If you won't let me pass I cannot guarantee your safety," Arty muttered, fists clenched "let me pass."

Tabitha had an intrinsic knowledge of power scales, so, when she realized the threat into Arty's words, she stood aside, swiftly. As the man, the *Wizard* passed by, she could feel it: Power. It wasn't an illusion, it was there: strong, untarnished power, refined and able to do anything…she shivered in the night's breeze, as Sylphid moved closer to her master once the wizard left for the dorms.

"Kyuuu Kyuuu" she whimpered, which earned her a slow patting on the head.

"I know…dangerous" Tabitha replied back.

Minutes later, on Arty's back, Derflinger finally found the courage to speak.

"I take it you didn't like the gift" when the user sighed, sitting down on Louise's bed, seeing how the girl wasn't still there, he muttered:

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Sure can partner!"

"No matter what?"

"No matter what" the sword replied once more.

"Once I was the royal head librarian for a long gone kingdom" Arty started, but was immediately interrupted by the sword:

"Wait! Is this one of those heart-rending stories which makes people cry just thinking back at them?"

"I suppose so"

"I don't think I want to hear it then."

"I'd like to" said a voice from behind the door, as Louise walked in red in her face.

"I never got to actually know more about you as my familiar…" she whispered, fidgeting with her fingers, "and I can't be a good master if I don't know what my familiar hates. I mean, what my friend doesn't like" Saying that, she actually blushed some more.

"No" as the reply came quickly, and swiftly, it fell down like a hard cold rock on the girls head. What?

"WHY!" she yelled at him, looking at him without believing in his words.

"Because no" standing up, he walked straight in front of Louise, and said: "Some things are better not known"

"You were about to say it to the sword!" she yelled back.

"The sword has a name, and it's Derflinger!" the sword snapped back at the girl, from Arty's back.

"The sword is a sentient object. You are you." He actually wanted to say it out loud, that he couldn't speak to people about certain points of his past, but objects were obviously fine with it, and Derflinger, as an object, could have then tried and spoken with the girl on its own, barring him actually keeping the promise.

_DAMMIT! I want to be freeeeee, freee from this life of being imprisoned…I want to be freeeee._

_Stop singing in my head now!_

"So…you refuse to tell me. Because I'm me, right? I'm Louise the Zero. Obviously" as tears began rolling down her cheeks, she couldn't help it, but open the door of her room once more:

"Out of here. Out. I don't want a familiar who can't trust me next to me. Come wake me up for tomorrow's lessons."

_BADUM-TSS-TSS DISCARDED! ONCE MORE! GIVE. ME. THE. BODY._

"I understand" he said, moving to leave the room.

"Wait" she whispered as he was about to take a step outside "I'd like the book back. I paid to give that to a friend, not a familiar"

"Gifts shouldn't be…"

"GIVE IT BACK" she yelled at him, and he stared at her, harshly. With such a stare that even she was about to let him go, but he placed a hand inside a pocket of his, and took out the book, giving it to her.

"Hope you'll like it" as he said that, he left the room, which fell into a silence, interrupted only now and then by the silent sobs of the girl.

_He promised to make me strong._ She thought. _He promised I wouldn't be the Zero anymore. Yet he didn't trust me. What was it that he was hiding? _As she thought that, she sat down on her bed, after closing the door of her room, and started flipping through the pages. It was a strange writing, Old Romalian, and so was the part which should have been in New Tristain. It was all in a strange language, and at the beginning, just under the preface, something had been written in a small and neat feminine style. She couldn't help but cringe, before throwing the book on her bed-table, and turning off the light to sleep.

***Louise's dream***

There she was, in that big library. It had become even bigger. More books, more space, more bookshelves, but now everything was in order. Every book had a place, and a young stern looking boy was moving through the rows of books snapping out orders to the right and to the left, as books flew around getting into their place.

"NO! History is on the LEFT Aisle!" as he said that, a set of book suddenly swapped place with another set.

"Oh, no you don't!" he muttered to a small book, who seemed to be flying towards the open window, but stopped hearing the boy talk: "Come down here, this instant!" and, saying that, the book slowly flapped down to him.

"You are in the Conjuration section" as he said that, the book moved towards another spot.

Louise looked in awe at the young man, who so much resembled Arty, albeit a bit younger and with a lot of long red hair covering the sides of his face. A flicker had him make a sidestep to the side, but not avoiding the hit and the falling down, which came from a younger girl, with blond hair tied in one big braid. She had silk clothing, and looked like a small blond bundle of gold, silk and fur. Certainly she had to be royalty, was Louise's thought, and no more than twelve years old.

"Your Grace, Elizabeth Astar Mabley of Terenestia, you should avoid showing such ungraceful actions to one as lowly as myself" the boy said, once he actually managed to get back on a kneeling position of sorts, his eyes on the ground, and his look stern.

"No fun!" the girl pouted, stomping her feet, "You were funnier once!"

"I was young and naïf, your highness, but please, your teachers are certainly awaiting you to continue with your lessons." As he said that, there was actually a lady in waiting , who had silver hair and slightly tanned skin, who had started to move closer to them.

"But they're no fun! I don't want to knit!" Louise could actually share that feeling.

"Nor play the piano!" She could share that feeling too.

"I want to play with you, Ar…" but she couldn't finish the sentence, that someone else entered the room, a big burly man with a crown, followed by a couple of guards.

"What's this? Once more? You always run off and come here, Elizabeth! It is unbecoming of a princess to the kingdom! Can't you see you are disturbing the assistant Librarian! Where is the head librarian, by the way, assistant?" the king had a sort of intimidating voice, which came easily together with the sheer size of the man's belly.

The girl didn't move however, holding instead harder on her lady's in waiting gown, trying to hide behind it.

"Stop acting like a child Elizabeth! So, assistant?" the king asked the assistant, who keeping his head as down as he could said:

"Your Highness, the Head Librarian is sickly"

"I see…he's probably going to kick the bucket soon, right?" as he said that Louise would have raged at him for his lack of grace and tact, but the assistant didn't even show a sign of being bothered by it.

"Yes your Highness, this might be his last breath"

"Good, what do I pay him for if he stays sickly and doesn't work? Now that I think about it, you're his adopted son, right?" Louise stared back at the boy, who answered back

"Yes your highness, my surname, Basileus, comes because I was saved by your majesty's mercy, and Sfor is the surname I took from my adoptive father, the Head Librarian"

Basileus Sfor. Artos Basileus Sfor. The talking skull was so similar to Arty! He did say they were one and the same person…but Louise hadn't thought much about it.

"I see. Well, you may take on the role of Headmaster Librarian then, as for you, Elizabeth, Come here this instant! I will not let myself repeat the order again!" as he said that, he moved closer to the girl, who started wailing.

Soon, the books in the entire library turned mad, like in frenzy, and charged straight on against the king, the smallest ones were but nuisances, but the biggest ones managed to make the King stop on his path, to protect himself.

"What madness is this? Assistant, is this wizardry something you're doing!" the king asked, as some of the guards had already begun slashing down books, much to the probable annoyance of Artos, who didn't seem to show a hint of emotion.

"No your highness…" he muttered, before actually starting to chant something which seemed like a spell. After a brief moment, Louise saw him concentrate around the room, and then setting his gaze to the crying princess.

"Your Highness…I beg your pardon" saying that, he moved slowly, closing in on the princess, and then, hugged her, patting her on the head.

"Hush child…it's alright, everything is fine…no need to cry…nobody is angry at you"

"Sniff…but he…" the princess whispered between tears.

"The king is just worried for you…calm down"

And as the princess stopped crying, so did the book stop flailing around like mad critters, falling lifelessly to the ground.

The king's face turned pale, as the assistant turned back into a kneeling position in front of his lord.

"That means…" the man began saying, but soon stopped, as the princess, still with red eyes grabbed a piece of her father's clothes and said:

"I want to have Arty as my magic teacher!"

***Back into the real world***

And with that final, shocking truth, Louise opened her eyes open wide, back into her bed.

"Founder Brimir…Oh god…What have I…what have I summoned!"

"Someone who's been asked to wake you up, because you're late for class" A known voice said from her side, and turning around shocked, she saw Arty, still there, looking at her with a clinical eye.

"If you aren't sick, you should head to class. You are a bit late for the first hour of lessons, but that will make it all the more interesting now"

"Wh…what? What are you doing here?" she blurted out, "I threw you out!"

"Yes, and I managed to get till the academy's gate before falling down on the ground. It seems I can't leave your side without your express order on where to go. Furthermore, it seems to only be a distance related thing, since I had no problems not waking you up."

"You're saying…you're bound to me?" she stood up, a slow grin appearing on her face.

"Why the grin?" Arty asked surprised.

"Stupid! STUPID!" starting to throw fists at him.

"By the way…was Fouquet a famous thief?" he asked her, curiously, once she stopped to catch her breath.

"Fouquet the Crumbling *IS* a famous thief, who…wait. What did you do last night?" Louise had half a hunch on why he was asking.

***The night before***

Arty had been walking to calm his nerves, lost in thoughts of what to do. He could try and search for someplace close by which could act as a suitable prison for such an evil entity as Artos, but he found himself stumbling on the ground as soon as he tried leaving the walls of the Academy. He felt weak, like all arcane energies were removing themselves from his body, and him being a Demilich in his actual form, it wasn't at all a good thing. He slowly crawled back towards the tower, and soon felt the energy return to him. It was like said energy had a source and that source was what was keeping him alive and working. He couldn't trace the origin, however, but being centered in the academy, and recalling what Artos had tried to do, but had failed…

_Shit._

_What?_

_Our magic is arcane based._

_Yes, so?_

_They work with elements._

_So?_

_There is no arcane energy in this world._

_What? If this were a dead magic area we would…_

_No, you don't get it. There has never been arcane magic. Our Phylactery arrived here first, you remember? Not us, the Phylactery which held our soul. Then the girl completed the summoning, and we started unconsciously tapping onto her *connection* to the elements magic…_

_Wait. You're telling me we are using her as a portal for arcane magic to come through?_

_Precisely. You know what's worst?_

_It looks orchestrated._

_Yes. If we are here, and summoning that celestial griffon worked…_

_Then we can suppose that she's connected to the planes._

_We could use her to go back, maybe we need to take her with us to have the Planar Traslation spell work?_

_We could try…not. _

_I did try convincing you._

_Who could have done that?_

_A God obviously, them and their stupid *Alter reality* ability. We are so taking that once we reach godhood._

_I'm dreading the day you will actually *get* it._

_*WE* will get it. I'll be going back to thinking however. Dodge!_

Arty threw his body to the side, avoiding for a second's worth the blow coming from a tall sized golem.

"Partner! That was close!" Derflinger yelled on his back.

"Oh my, what are you doing here so late at night? Come to steal from the vault too have you?" the voice came from the shoulder of the golem, which stood as high as six meters, maybe a bit more. The man wore a sort of green covering clothing, and in the dark night, it was extremely difficult to see under the hood. Except for Arty, who still didn't know who the woman was, however.

"Might I have you refrain from stealing with words?" Arty actually asked the question, as he managed to dodge another blow, his braces of Armor worked their charm as the protective magic made the fists bounce off.

"Partner, use me!" Derflinger yelled, and at that moment, a thought crossed Arty's mind.

_Wait. I've got a plan._

_Which is? _

_We are being used because of what we are. A powerful mage._

_So?_

_We are here to sow chaos._

_DUCK._

As Arty actually dodged again, this time because the Golem had tried charging at him, he couldn't help but grab Derflinger's handle, and feel the runes work their way.

_You realized this too, that's why you're avoiding me getting harmed now: if it's all planned, what they wanted could be only one thing: A Demilich running rampart. The reason would be…_

Quickened Bear's Strength suddenly made Arty's muscle bulge and grow a bit bigger, which actually granted him enough strength to block with his sword the golem's fists.

_So that people would pray for salvation. To demons. To devils. _

_To gods almighty. To Pelor and to Heironeus._

_And the weak would worship us, and with us…_

_Nerull, Wee Jas, Boccob._

_Someone wants this plane to become a den of his faithful servants._

_We are but pawns._

_I'm NOT A PAWN. _

As Arty thought that, a quickened Rage spell made him even stronger, and with that, he charged straight through the golem's hand with his sword, cracking it till it broke down. Then, slashing at the golem's legs, it made it crumble downwards, together with the owner of said golem, who found herself, not himself, at sword-point.

_The sword is clearly Adamantine, probably with an enhanced bonus to damage, to slice so easily through the golem's natural damage reduction._

_Or maybe it was a weak golem. _

"I will take no lives" Arty whispered, knocking her unconscious with the side of the sword.

***back to the present***

Louise heard Arty speak of how he had actually fought the thief and the golem with the power of the runes on his left hand. No mention was done to his inner thoughts or of the magic he had used. Instead, when he had brought Fouquet to the Headmaster, he had been told she was hiding in the academy as Ms Longueville, the secretary of the headmaster himself. Fouquet herself had confessed her plan to steal the staff of destruction, but refused to name who had hired her. To keep the matter silent, especially to other noble families, Arty had been offered a prize.

"What did the Headmaster give you as a prize?" she asked, and Arty replied with glee.

"He offered me the use of the school's library, all the way till the Fenrir's archives"

"Those are off limits for anyone but the staff members" Louise replied in awe.

"Well, I *did* avoid the school being disgraced for losing a certain…staff of destruction?"

"Oh well…so now you're going to spend your time there?" Louise muttered, "When are you going to teach me your magic!" she yelled then, remembering his promise.

"Over the summer, when you'll have more free time. Till then, what is the *Familiar Exhibition* which is having people around here riled up?"

"Oh damn it! I forgot about that!" she muttered, hitting her forehead hard with her hand.

"It's a sort of show for nobles to have a look at their sons and daughters familiars, and those of their rival families. Furthermore the Princess Henrietta herself should be present"

"Princess?" asking that, Arty nervously clenched his right hand, a motion which Louise didn't detect.

"Yes, the Flower of Tristain: the Princess Henrietta, with the late king dead" another twitch on Arty's face, "and Regent Mazarin in power" another twitch, "she is going to marry with…"

"An emperor from another country to consolidate her power" Arty finished the sentence, looking at his hands.

"So you kn…everything's fine? It's like you have seen a ghost" Louise asked, finally realizing that Arty had been looking at his hands for a long while.

_Hey. This is Artos here. You know what I hate, more than having you in control? Being toyed by someone. Now, I'm going to say this only once: I'm going to find out who brought us here, in whatever dimension or plane of existence it is hiding, and I am going to wage war on his sorry ass until he cries like the little girl he is. This is too much. WHO IS TOYING WITH A DEMILICH! WHO IS THE BASTARD THAT WILL PAY WITH HIS SOUL FOR THIS!_

_You know the answer. I know it too._

_A God._

_We just need to find out which._

_And when we do…_

…_we will shove this plane up his …_

_No. I was thinking something else._

…_I like that plan…_

_Binding Rules deal?_

_Binding Rules deal._

**Author's note:**

**aline1: Explosions are more of a Sorcerer's thing, Artos would actually squeal in delight at the Illusion spell of Louise, or even better, at the Record spell (never seen in the anime) of the pope. (Which grants knowledge of everything the item's owner has seen or felt, and is great for tracking down fugitive adventurers) **

**drake202: I'll definitely include them, at some point, seeing how those are actually the first spells ever learned by a wizard. Maybe not immediately, but soon. **

**Blinded in a bolthole: before starting to write it, I had to think of how to effectively limit his strength, without making it look too obvious. The Guiche's duel was one of the things I never actually got the reason for Saito doing it: as a commoner fought against mages and nearly lost, it was obvious that the reason was for the author to portray how magic made even students *strong* and how commoners were weak. So, I actually used it to portray the same exact thing: D&D magic is stronger than Halkeginia's one in some areas, but weaker in others. Transmutation of rocks to brass? Dot spell here, EIGHT CIRCLE *Polymorph any object* in D&D. So Arty uses prestidigitation to fake it for a moment. As for challenges…An ancient mage saying goes like this: "IF you leave a portal open, unattended, and forget about it, you shouldn't cry when your tower crumbles because of demons, githzerai or worst coming waltzing in"…though it *IS* just a saying.**

**Notes:**

**Tabitha says the griffon is an illusion, because it disappears in the air. (summons disappear after being *killed* because actually they return to their plane) so she thought it was an illusion, because the griffon didn't attack, but just *scare* Sylphid, it worked.**

**Dragons can be taken as familiars, as long as there are the feats improved familiar available, though considering her size, she's be classified as an adult blue dragon. However blue dragons aren't stupid, and many actually take classes as wizard or sorcerers. So he thought of her as a *transfer student* and has yet to realize that no, Halkeginia's dragons are different from D&D ones...but he does have questions for her, maybe next chapter he'll get to ask them (certainly at the familiar's exhibition) **

**Final thoughts:**

**What is the Binding Rules deal? Who knows when you'll find it out.**


	4. Chapter 4: Scratching the surface

Chapter Four

Louise couldn't help but stare at Arty making his way around the school like a staff member. After the first couple of days, he was actually considered more of a member of the staff than anything. His ability to, seemingly, send everyone who angered him to sleep, made him the love of the school's staff of commoners, who usually had no chance to rebel at all, and usually always took the blame even when the nobles were the one in the wrong. Yet Arty was kind, gentle, and was equal in his judgment. The nights however, were a problem. Every night, she'd dream about a small girl being taught strange patterns, patterns she couldn't for all her worth understand, and neither could the girl, who seemed more than happy to simply let the teacher explain without taking attention, maybe because she loved hearing his voice? It was calm and collected, with a small hint of enthusiasm, like he really loved the subject he was speaking of.

She had yet to speak of it with Arty himself; when he'd feel ready, he would, and if he wouldn't then she'd just have to find a way to find out on her own.

When Louise wasn't attending her lessons, or eating, or sleeping, she was with Arty in the library of the school, since, as he had told her, he was using a spell to automatically translate their language and their writing, but would have preferred not to waste a *Spell Slot*.

He had explained to her what Spell slots were: basically, a wizard's mind was divided into sectors, and, into every one of these sectors, words for a spell were carved, like a loaded crossbow, but until the final word was pronounced, with the correct gestures, or in Arty's case with a single thought, since he was a skilled Wizard, the bolt wouldn't fire, and the magic wouldn't start. Usually apprentice Wizards had set spells, ranging in levels. The higher the level, the longer the spell and the less spell slots were available. To be able to cast more than three high level spells would be extremely difficult even for the most seasoned of wizards. When asked how many he could actually cast, he had laughed it off with a "Wizard secret".

"Seems learning this language isn't all that difficult" Arty said, closing one of the advanced books, which made even Louise, being a native tongue, frown repeatedly and finally avoid the book altogether, being filled with too complicated words even for her.

"So this makes the total languages I speak…twenty-one" as he said that number casually, Louise blinked.

"I only speak…four" she sheepishly admitted. "Tristain, Romalian, Gallian and Germanian…I was trained since I was very little into them"

"Oh yes, it's a common practice, youngsters learn languages really fast" Arty nodded, grabbing another book, around them, she could see those eyes staring at books flying in the air and being opened, flipped, and then closed after a while.

"I haven't asked you yet…how old are you?" Louise had been puzzled by his way of calling people, even elderly one's like some of the staff seniors, *Kids*.

"Lost count" he lied as another eye set himself on his left open palm, while his right turned the page of the book he was reading now.

_Seven-hundred sixty-four actually._

_You keep count?_

_I do: the number of skulls in my drawer counts for that._

…_I thought it was just you been macabre_

_Oh yes, that too!_

"There you go again" Louise said, snapping Arty back to his surroundings.

"What?" he asked.

"Sometimes, you simply lose your focus, and gaze around lifelessly" Louise replied, as she started writing down the assignment due for tomorrow, one of the good things of having Arty as a familiar was that he could actually help him with her homework, provided she'd do it first.

"I take time to think"

_And talk to someone who is marvelously intelligent, filled with humility, and has a knack for World Domination. _

…

_What? You know it's true!_

"Think what?" Louise asked, as she slowly wrote down the first basic combinations of elements.

"Stuff, by the way, I think I saw someone I need to talk to, I'll be back in a bit" saying that, Arty excused himself and walked towards another aisle, disappearing from Louise's view.

_Probably a staff member he has to speak to, but if it's the maid I'm going to turn mad! No flirting with maids! _

The maid in question was Siesta, who had casually been one of the first in the staff to be helped by Arty, and had then started *casually* needing help whenever he was around. Louise herself was starting to believe that Arty was feigning not realizing she was faking the need for help. She had yet to voice her complaints, because usually all her familiar did was snap his fingers, and trouble repaired itself. It was quite interesting, she had yet to actually see him gesture, or pronounce words, or do anything like grab components for a spell, as she wondered wherever to ask him that next, she started day dreaming.

***Between aisles***

"I've got a question for you," Arty said, sitting down in front of Tabitha, who looked at him with a slightly puzzled expression, "That dragon of yours," as he said that, Tabitha actually closed the book, and just so casually placed a hand on her staff, "It's not a normal dragon, right?" as he asked that, Tabitha still held the staff, as she shook her head.

"Strange, because I have yet to hear her speak" as he said the *her* something made Tabitha widen her eyes, "what? She speaks, right?"

_I mean, blue dragon speak, and a lot, they are haughty, prideful, and filled with thoughts of beautiful things, and it's a she, or I'm no longer an expert in reptilian physiology._

_Why did you learn it anyway?_

_Dragon scale armor for the death-knights didn't come out of a Fabricate spell._

Tabitha shook her head strongly once more.

"That dragon doesn't know how to speak?" he asked once more, and Tabitha nodded.

"I'll have to see to that then," as he said that standing up, Tabitha grabbed a piece of his tunic, looking at him with a worried expression.

"Why?"

"Because it's impossible, Dragons of that species know how to talk; if they don't then maybe she has a problem, and needs to be checked for some sickness. It could be a lingering disease which is reducing her intellectual capacities, or maybe…"

"She's healthy" Tabitha replied, standing up.

"She doesn't speak" Arty replied, pointing out the fact.

"She's young" Tabitha said.

"She should be able to speak after a couple of months out of the egg" Arty whispered back.

"No one knows that…please don't tell" Tabitha pleaded him, and, at that point, Arty actually stopped for a second.

_No one knows that dragon can speak? Is she for real?_

_Wait…this could be a misunderstanding. Maybe she's not actually a blue dragon._

_Then what? An overgrown mutant lizard?_

_It could be possible, dragons are connected to the arcane energies: without them they could have either developed differently or attached themselves to something else, like...elements. _

_Oh, right! Paragraph Five of Chapter Three of *Dragon's guide around Halkeginia* Dragons are divided by element; furthermore there is one lost type of breed who is said to know how to talk._

"Oh…she's a rhyme dragon then…I'm sorry. There's been a misunderstanding" as Arty said that actually a bit shocked, Tabitha stared at him surprised.

"From where I come from, dragon talk from when they are whelps, they are divided by color and by metal, so there are red, black, golden, copper, silver dragons, and many more…I thought your dragon was a blue one…she's not evil, is she?" As Tabitha strongly shook her head, Arty sighed in relief.

"Good then, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, are you reading yet another book?" as he changed topic so casually, Tabitha wasn't caught off guard.

"You are not from here?" She asked then.

"No, actually I'm from another plane" as he said that, he kind of thought why there weren't any mentions to other planes in the library. Maybe they had never travelled across planes?

"Plane?"

"A place not of this world"

"Not of this world?" the girl didn't seem to understand, so Arty began explaining it to her, about the great wheel that spun, the ticking of the great planar clock, the existence of different plane, devoted to single aspects of elements, of positive and negative energy, and when he actually finished speaking, he realized he had spoken for over an hour, in his professor mode.

Tabitha looked at him with a curious look:

"You visited all those places?" she asked then.

"Nearly all"

_A trip to the positive plane and we'd end up charred; likewise if we were to go knock at Pelor's afterlife._

"Home?" she asked, and at that question, a thought entered Arty and Artos' mind.

_Oh sh…_

***Back at Home- Material plane***

"There is chaos in Necros, my lord" as a sleazy, covered in blood vampire spawn moved closed to the vampire lord, the lord couldn't help but sigh, where did the Ruler go? He seemed to have travelled through planes, to say the least, considering even the strongest of their necromancer had found no traces of him through scrying. Not that he would, obviously; if any second rate necromancer could use Scrying to find out where their ruler was he wouldn't be their ruler at all, still he had been punished for failing and was turned into a Necropolitan, without hands.

The problem lay that everyone knew that this could either be one of his tricks, to see who was actually loyal to him, or one of his usual short notice leave to travel for long lost knowledge. In both cases, however, they started fighting in doing little things that they were normally barred from doing, hoping, at the Ruler's return, that someone else had done something so much graver that all the hate of the Demilich was to be turned to him.

The problem wasn't that, however, but with some of the inhabitants of the city itself, which became more and more restless as the time passed. In particular, the ghosts, the spectres, the shadows, the wights. Even more specific, the only banshee of the city.

"ARTOOOSSSSSSSSSSS" it cried day and night, around the town, without fault or intention to stop. It actually had some sort of twisted fling for the ruler, and, while undead where actually immune to that wail, awakened undeads who had work to do, even delicate one as writing down new spells, found their concentration interrupted by the wall-piercing shrieks.

The few who tried to calm her had been torn to shreds, so she had been left to go about her business.

The vampire lord looked at his spawn: sure, he wasn't strong, but he was his spawn, and he wouldn't throw it to stop the banshee, he wasn't that bored yet.

"Have the vampires stay put. The lord will return surely."

"Yes your…"

"ARTOOOOSSS" the shriek broke the windows, delicately covered in wonderful blood red colored curtains, which became shreds.

The vampire lord twitched, breaking the metal staff he held in his right hand.

"Ask the mummy lord if he can spare a couple of mummies, have someone ask the crypt-touched ghoul, and someone, bring me my armor."

He was sure that he could be excused…after all it was a wonderful blood soaked curtain which had been torn to shreds!

Banshees were replaceable, but where would he ever find another pool of virgin blood for the curtains!

***Back in Tristain***

"I'm sure everything is fine," Arty said "They know better than to kill each other while I'm gone" as he said that, slightly smiling, Tabitha looked at him with a slightly softened expression.

"Family?"

"Yes, sort of"

_We've got mummies and vampires and shadows, we've got ghouls and ghasts and banshees, we've got necromancers and necropolitans, and we are the biggest multi-ethnic family ever! We span not only across races, but also across ages! Have her join the family too! We just need a mad uncle. The last uncle Festering exploded against those Heironeus' blokes._

…_I have no words for you right now._

"You don't miss them?" she asked.

"Can't say I don't, can't say I do. Families are like that" as he said that, however, he suddenly realized that Tabitha was in library.

The familiar festival was going to be the next day in the evening, so families were meant to be together in the afternoon today, to salute the arrival of princess Henrietta, and then watch the show the following day before departing, rooms had even been prepared, Arty had helped with some of them too.

Except Louise's parents, who, being a duke and a duchess had no time to *dillydally* and her elders sisters, one too frail to come, the other too busy at the Oriz Magic academy, wherever that was, and now also Tabitha's family wasn't there.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"No problem. Used to it" she said looking sideways.

"Fine then…have you already done your assignment?" as the blue haired girl shook her head, Arty smiled gently.

"You're coming with me then." Arty said, grabbing her by one hand, and literally walking his way back to where Louise was, even though Tabitha tried to resist in the beginning, in the end she let herself be brought *by force* back to where Louise was day-dreaming, while still writing down stuff.

Arty took a quick glance at what Louise was writing and sighed.

"Hey, who's the one who day-dreams now?" as he said that, Louise snapped out of her trance to look at her assignment: most of it had been covered with strange etchings, pictures of stars, flowers, even ponies. Also one of her and her familiar with hands held together. She blushed at that and quickly covered it with more ink.

As Tabitha was made to sat down to Arty's right, the line of eyes resumed their normal operations of collecting onto Artos' palm, as he looked cheerfully at both his pupils. Albeit none actually were his pupils yet.

The blue haired girl was a stark contrast to the pink haired one, where the first was whining about the assignment and pouting, the second one worked diligently, and once they both handed them over to him for checking, he realized quickly that Tabitha's was perfect, while Louise's…

"Louise…Fire plus Air plus Earth plus Alchemy does not make *Teapots*"

"What does it make then?" she asked back with a desperate look in her eyes.

"A sonic explosion, that's what it makes, if there had been water, instead, it would have been a scorching oil ignition" as he said that, Tabitha nodded, obviously she had written it right.

"Then here, it had to be five lines of description. One word per line is not the same"

"An Air blade is an Air blade, what more can be said?" as she looked at him with a shocked face, he muttered:

"For example the thickness, the cutting edge, the variables, the movements of the user. Anything but *It IS an AIR BLADE*, understood?"

"Yes" Louise pouted.

"Good" as he said that, he handed back their assignments, "Now that this is done, as fellow outcasts until the princess arrives, I say we…" but he was stopped dead on his track, as he placed a hand on his chest, losing breath for a second.

"Arty?" Louise asked, and Tabitha too looked at him with a puzzled look.

For a second, passed the stupor, Arty's face was one of pure rage, hate, and scorn, it made both girls slowly gasp in fear, but then, it returned to a normal one.

"What happened?" Louise asked.

"My family just lost some members" as he said that, he couldn't help but slowly stand up.

"And judging by the feeling I got, pretty close relatives of mine"

Could it be? A strike from sacred exorcists? How could they…Necros wasn't built to fall in a day! There were traps all around for the living!

_Maybe they're making us desperate to strengthen us here. _

_We mustn't let this stop us._

_We can't play their game._

_I know. _

_I know that too._

"Sixth sense?" Tabitha asked, but Arty shook his head.

"No, soul sense, if you want to call it like that"

"The same" Tabitha replied, but Arty shook his head once more.

"No, Sixth sense can be wrong, Soul sense cannot, gut instincts"

"If you say so" Tabitha said.

Louise looked at the exchange of words with interest:

"This is the first time I heard Tabitha speak so much in one hour and with someone different from Kirche"

"Really? That won't do." As he said that, Arty shook his head.

"There needs to be more speaking, lest one loses his tongue"

_As a flying skull with no tongue whatsoever we still manage to speak pretty clearly._

…_why are you still speaking?_

_I might lose my tongue!  
You don't HAVE ONE._

_The point I was making has now been proven._

Small chatter soon followed, whispers, small giggles and finally time flew, until they had to attend the arrival of the princess herself.

Everyone stood in a line, and the carriage of the princess, carried by unicorns, marched inside at a normal pace, with the princess smiling and waving, as instead Cardinal Mazarin kept a stern face.

That was until the unicorns came to a halt. An abrupt halt. Fear ran through their eyes, as they began screaming of their own.

It is said that a unicorn will scream only when in the presence of utter evil, which its own good presence isn't enough to cleanse. The Halkeginia's unicorn, while not on par with the other species of wild unicorns present in the material plane Artos came from, still could discern the smell of blood, but most of all, they could discern that of pure evil, death, and power. That's why they screamed, howling to the wind as they tried to turn the carriage and run away, breaking the bonds and actually leaving the carriage there, without steed, as they ran for all their lives' worth away.

Nobody uttered a word, but a set of eyes moved toward another, Colbert's gaze stared deeply at Arty's, and he stared back with a saddened expression. Louise didn't connect anything but the fact that the princess' reputation was going to be tarnished by this. The headmaster hurriedly ran to the carriage, which, once opened, revealed a really shocked princess and a really angered Regent.

"I want the culprit for this shameful thing now!" the regent yelled as he descended now.

"Which of you harbors such bloodlust! Is it a familiar?" sure, Louise turned her gaze to Arty, but she was the only one, together with maybe Guiche and Malicorne, the rest that had actually seen, spoken, and being helped by Arty didn't, and if anything, they'd throw themselves in the fire thrice before even thing HE was the cause.

_Strange. They shouldn't have detected me._

_Maybe they didn't._

_What do you mean?_

_We have a portal between planes right here._

_So? _

_From which plane did WE pass through?_

_Oh…well yes, this makes it even better. Inquisition! She's a heretic! BURN HER!_

_Stop it Artos, that thing never worked…_

_You forget Gartuk. _

_Gartuk was a city of half-orcs! They'd believe Gold was brass and vice-versa, and without loquacity!_

_Still counts._

The Princess however smiled, shaking her head, it wasn't a big deal, maybe the unicorns had been scared by the dragons or by the griffons, and it wasn't a problem, really. She had violet hair, and clear blue eyes, wasn't more than seventeen however.

_Naivety! I feel it from here!_

_Stop it._

_Let a kingdom crumble and suddenly you don't feel it?_

_I said to stop it._

_Stop it? Stop it! Stop it from telling the truth? WE ARE THE TRUTH._

…

The headmaster, still bowing profusely, made way for the two and their escorts inside the academy, of all that bowed, only one did not. In order to feign however he became invisible. A feat which passed unseen by all, except one. The captain of the griffin guards, a certain Wardes that had looked for and found his pink-haired fiancé, next to a pretty tall man with red hair and green eyes, which had simply vanished when the bowing had been meant to be done. Curious, but deeming it of no furthermore notice at the moment, he kept his guard high, trying to look as dignified as possible.

As everyone went back to their duties, Professor Colbert marched straight towards Louise, stopping her from searching for her familiar:

"Miss Vallière, have you seen your familiar? I need to speak with him" as he said that, Louise couldn't help but feel a slight sense of uneasiness.

"I don't know where…" but she stopped, as Arty actually reappeared next to the Professor.

"I'm here." He simply said, and Louise could see it, she could see the Professor swiftly moving his hand to his wand, but stopping midway the motion. What was going on?

"What's…" she wanted to ask, but Arty stopped her, raising a hand.

"None of your business, kid." Another set of walls, once more, rose metaphorically between Louise and her familiar. She bit her tongue and then dashed off, leaving both the professor and her familiar there.

The courtyard slowly emptied, except for the two, a mage and a Wizard, staring at each other.

"The unicorns, was it you that ticked them off?"

"If I say no, would you believe me?"

"No" as he said that he grabbed his wand, raising it in front of him, "but I'll have to make sure once I see it with my own eyes!"

Colbert, the Flame Snake, quickly threw a fireball at the man in front of him, who didn't bother to dodge. The noise while not much was enough for Louise, who had stopped nearby, to hear and turn around, just in time to see her familiar, her friend, being turned to, well, smithereens, as tall flame walls encompassed him, and the flames didn't seem to stop. Colbert, instead, threw all his fire spells at him, and completed it with his signature mark, The Flame Snake, a Square-Class spell.

The noise of the battlefield actually attracted the griffon guards, who stared at the scene with shock, as did the headmaster and some of the students.

Standing inside the living inferno, was Arty's shape, which many already thought had been burned to a crisp, or charred beyond recognition, especially without a clear view.

"Professor Colbert! Have you gone mad!" the Headmaster Osman yelled, moving closer to the man.

"Headmaster, he…"

"Surely Miss Valliére's familiar corpse will…"

Louise dashed wand in hand against Professor Colbert, but she stopped midway, because the flame column actually moved.

At first it sprout forward, then backwards, then it simply exploded into tiny sparks, and, clapping his hands, at the center of the explosion, stood Arty. Unscathed. Unarmed. Not even covered in sooth, or with burn signs.

"Bravo! This is precisely what I wanted to try for tomorrow's exhibition!" as he said that, the Headmaster looked surprise, but even more was Colbert, the Flame Snake. His square class move, not effective!

Louise couldn't help but stare dumbstruck, did he chase her away because he wanted to surprise her tomorrow? It could possibly be that.

Arty grinned as he stopped clapping his hands, moving closer to the Headmaster and Professor Colbert, a Silent Energy immunity set for fire had given him nothing more than a bright show, without the heat. Really, the way these people gave away their strong points was too easy, if not fire, what would a flame snake do?

"Headmaster, do not worry, this was all decided before hand, for tomorrow's exhibition, who better than the Flame Snake, to help me out and showcase my…brightest points?" as he said that with a smile, Louise couldn't help it, but feel surprised. He was immune to fire. Her familiar was immune to fire.

On the other hand, Arty had hoped that with this, everything would be settled once and for all with Professor Colbert. He had just proven how useless his magic was against him, and how fire, no matter how destructive in this world, was meaningless to him. Earth, Wind, and Water were problems, for his magic held no spells to immunize himself from their basic components, but fire? Fire he could.

"Oh! I see! Next time however please, do so after warning me! Oh! I have a feeling tomorrow's going to be a wonderful exhibition!" saying that with a smile on his face, the headmaster turned back to enter the academy. Leaving Colbert to stare at Arty, and vice-versa, as Arty drew closer to whisper something in the other's man ear:

"I told you before, but let me repeat myself: I hold no ill will, nor intention for harm. Do not test my patience, for the one I substitute isn't at all forgiving as I am" then he turned around and looked surprised at Louise, who was staring at him with watery eyes.

"What is it, Louise?" he asked, getting closer. She sobbed grabbing a hold of a piece of his tunic, and hugging him.

"I thought you died!" she whimpered, as he kneeled down in front of her, to pat her head.

"Hush child…it's alright, everything is fine…no need to cry" as he said that, she suddenly realized this had a sort of deja-vu feeling, but held it for herself. It didn't matter.

"Now that you found out what I planned on doing tomorrow, I'll have to rearrange something with Professor Colbert later tonight" turning around while saying those words, Colbert nodded, leaving.

The Professor had dread thoughts about what the night would bring to him, but he would be found suitably prepared, yes he would. He still couldn't believe himself though, what had brought him to clash up against that man so swiftly? He was one for keeping his anger in check, but something, simply, had ticked him off. But what?

***As the sun sets***

Arty was about to leave Louise's room, after having explained to her that it had to be kept a secret what he planned to do the next day, to avoid raising counter-things which could easily outshine him.

"Mine are simple tricks: A coating of water against fire, or a small thin shield of force to avoid catching on fire. Nothing grand, at all"

_You fat liar, it's a seven circle spell, with that you can SWIM in the lava like a MERMAID. You can drink it and spit it out, or have it turn to stone in your stomach._

…_details._

"You took a fire spell straight on! At least triangle class and you didn't even flinch! Whatever trick it was, I want to learn it too!"

"This summer, maybe, we might scratch the surface" he replied to her. Energy resistance and Energy protection were easier spells to master, and while not as effective, they could transform third degree burns into slight burn marks.

Light knocks came from the door, and Arty went to open, just to find a mantled figure enter swiftly, throwing herself at Louise.

"Louise Françoise!" the cloaked figure yelled, removing her hood to hug the girl, who, however, stared in embarrassment at the princess, and kneeled down.

Arty closed the door, since he kind of wanted to hear this thing out.

_Okay. Now, figure this: You want to bring turmoil to a kingdom, you kill the princess. LOOK WHO YOU HAVE HERE! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS UNHOL Y KILL HER._

_What…No! _

_THIS IS LIKE A GODSEND or better yet an UNHOLYSEND. REALLY! We finished summoned to the … childhood friend of the princess? You know what, who cares if a god sent us here, come on, use Ghoul Touch and she'll die and become our faithful ghoul in a couple of days._

_No!_

_Just do it! I mean, think of the chaos, the civil war, the BODIES we could RAISE. I'm planning on expanding my empire to more dimensions: think about it, "Multidimensional Empire of the Emperor Artos Basileus Sfor"_

_NO!_

_Darn it._

"Please your highness, you shouldn't lower yourself to come to this humble abode" Louise replied, knelt down and her head low.

"Louise Françoise, please" the princess said, puffing her cheeks in an adorable manner, "We used to play together when we were little"

"I have had the honor of being your majesty's childhood play pal"

"We used to run and play tag, and get all dirty, and we would get scolded then, and you'd always win our fights"

"Not always…once I didn't"

"Yes, once you did not, stand up, friend of mine, and call me nothing more than Henrietta" as she said that, Louise actually stood up, and then both girls hugged each other.

Arty had never left the room, obviously, but he was doing his best to wait, and see how much time it did actually take for the two of them to actually remember he was still in the room.

After a while of giggling about a mud throwing contest, Henrietta finally gasped, looking at the man who had been sitting, arms crossed, straight ahead of the her and Louise, at the table.

"Louise, there's a man in this room" she said, slightly pale and surprised.

"Oh! Arty! I thought you had left for Professor Colbert, to speak about tomorrow's exhibition" Louise said, surprised she didn't feel him even sit down there.

"I was kind of interested in how you two knew each other, that was ten minutes ago though, after that, it became a test to see how much time it would take for you to notice me" he replied with a smile, not realizing he was in the room had also helped in having him not have to bow to the princess.

"Oh my, I didn't mean to interrupt your time with your lover Louise!" Henrietta said, gasping as she placed a hand in front of her mouth, a bit shocked, but Louise reddened shaking her head.

"No! He's my familiar your highness!"  
"But…you call him Arty; surely it's a nickname for a lover" Henrietta replied surprised.

"No your highness, it's his name"

"I see…" as Henrietta said that, she slightly bowed her head to Arty, "then I hope you will keep looking after my dear friend, Mr. Arty, I heard you took on flames without breaking a sweat, and captured Fouquet, so I hope you will protect Louise Françoise from harm."

"Until death makes us apart" Arty replied with a gentle smile, which made Louise redden even more and Henrietta giggle;

"Spoken like a true lover"

"I'm afraid I won't be able to stay and try to make my master even redder however, because I've got a previous appointment for tonight. Please do not wait for me awake Louise," as he said that he stood up on his feet, "For I'll probably sleep outside" saying that, he simply disappeared into thin air. He already had been in Colbert's laboratory-room before.

"What did your familiar just do?" Henrietta asked, surprised.

"He's a Wizard, so he can pull off strange tricks: this isn't even the most surprising one, you should see his mansion"

"A mansion? Where?"

"Wherever he wants: the door to it appears like that" as Louise said that, she snapped her fingers, and Henrietta's eyes blinked.

"You're making fun of me Louise Françoise!"

"I can assure you: he also captured Fouquet the Crumbling Earth alone! He's possibly the strongest familiar ever"

"He certainly has charms of his own" as she said that, Henrietta reddened slightly. Maybe it was the wine starting to make effect.

"Not fair! I saw him first!" Louise pouted sadly, before adding "But I'm just a kid to him, he probably prefers…large breasts."

"I was joking Louise Françoise…what is this being serious?" Henrietta asked, teasing her friend.

As Louise began sputtering, more giggling ensued next.

"This does however make me at ease, for there is an urgent matter I must ask of you, that I cannot ask to anyone else" the Princess said.

"I need someone I can trust to deliver a letter to Albion…it is of the utmost importance that it reaches the loyalist forces of Newcastle before the rebels manage to take it, especially Prince Wales" as she said that, a little melancholy touched Henrietta's face.

"Yes your Majesty needs but to ask of me, and I will act" saying that Louise had knelt once more, "My familiar and I will certainly bring the letter successfully to Prince Wales, I vow my honor as a noble"

"Louise Françoise, my dear friend, I thank you for your kind words…"

"Ah!" yelled a voice from behind the door, which suddenly slammed open, as Guiche fell inside face first.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" Guiche said standing back up and trying to excuse himself, "It's just that I felt a disturbance in the force concerning a pretty lady…but I never would have suspected it would be her Majesty! I'm sorry, really, let Guiche de Gramont apologize by aiding the Princess! Please!" after saying that Guiche actually bowed.

"Gramont, as in General de Gramont's son?"

"Yes your majesty, but he's a good for nothing skirt chaser"

"I'm sure that if his father is serving the crown so proudly, then his son too will be trusted, right?" as she said that, Guiche simply fainted from the shock of being able to help the princess.

***In Colbert's Laboratory***

"So, that was immunity from elements spell" Colbert took the time to understand what had happened, as Arty nodded once more.

"Precisely. Once activated, the caster chooses an element, and that element is barred from harming the caster, more than one can be created, layering on top one of the other for different elements protections"

"So if I had cast an earth type of spell, or a water one, you would have been hit?"

"No." The reply came swiftly.

"Normally, there would be a spell resistance to consider: I am naturally refractive to magic based on arcane forms, but since you act on elements, it does not ably, which is a great bonus for fighting monsters from where I come from, who require a greater spell penetration to harm." Colbert took notes about this.

"However, your spells are put together thanks to a magic that I can, never the less, dispel, and I am a master Abjurer first and foremost, not a specialist, mind you, but a master never the less"

"You spoke of Specialists already: those are the Wizards who choose to renounce some paths to take on others, right?"

"Precisely. Except for divination specialists, who simply choose to renounce only one path, for every other school, two are needed to be renounced"

"What are the benefits?"

"More spell slots available, and spells learned of said school. Arcane energy by itself has No form, a Wizard models it with the same grace of a potter who models clay. Some are more keen on working on certain types of clay, other prefers other types."

"I understand. How do you manage to fight others then, if all can be immune?"

"Immunity to elements is a Seventh-circle spell, apart from that, there *are* lower level spells which grants resistance or a certain degree of annulment, but you must consider that wizards have different spells, one of which, the most famous, is Magic Missiles," saying that, he raised a hand towards the number of wooden crates which lay around freely. "I will now hit all empty platters left around here" that said, a set of pure white darts dashed forward from Arty's hand, moving with unrelenting speed and utter precision at the empty plates, which broke up in tiny bits, without, however, touching once the wooden crates on which they were usually placed. Some even took a turn around a crate to hit a diagonally placed plate.

"As long as I have vision of the target, this magic cannot fail. Unless the enemy casts a Shield magic."

"Basically, it works on a counter basis?"

"Yes. With ability, a mage can use any spell he or she wishes to counter another of the same circle or lower, or he can use Dispel Magic, and Dispel Greater Magic, both of which work in the same way: bringing back to raw arcane energy what is being modeled"

Colbert nodded, fascinated.

"It seems a highly versatile style of magic"

"It is, but only to the intelligent. To the weak willed or to the idiot, it is nothing but a chain that binds him to death" saying those words, Arty looked determined at Professor Colbert.

"When one begins, one knows little, and may cast little. As one grows however, things become easier…and one will go from casting this" Acid orb was cast silently and thrown at the stone center of the warehouse-room of professor Colbert, leaving behind a small mark, where the acid had corroded the stone, "To THIS" and with those, he actually began casting, and for the first time, Colbert heard the words he was pronouncing, and he saw the gestures and the movements of his hands:

Sphere of Ultimate Destruction, the spell that no sane person would wish to tackle head on, slowly appeared in the center of Colbert's room, floating silently.

It was eerily, to say the least of it, as the Professor looked at the black sphere, which seemed to have no light at all, and had this sort of…attracting feeling to it, as a slight breeze started to move towards the sphere. The broken plates moved towards it, offering no resistance at all, and soon they were engulfed, destroyed forever. Yet it was so silent. With a snap, the sphere disappeared.

"This is a Ninth Circle Spell, Sphere of Ultimate Destruction, whatever it touches *Will* die, be destroyed to ashes, and never be seen again" with those words, Arty looked at the professor with a smile, "And this isn't even the strongest spell I may throw at my enemies, professor. So, yes, you can trust me, because either way, you cannot defeat me"

Professor Colbert slowly began sweating, profusely so too, and, after a couple of dreadfully silent minutes, he whispered only three words:

"Teach me, Master"

And somewhere, deep down, something grinned once more.

***Louise's dream***

The next day, straight after the familiar's exhibition, they would depart for La Rochelle, and then, from there, to Albion. She couldn't believe it, as she finally closed her eyes to sleep. She was expecting the usual, so it came as a surprise when something else was shown.

She was looking through the window of the library of the castle of the royalty of Terenestia, that much, she had understood. To her side, Arty/Artos was looking outside too, staring at some sort of red flags with a sort of golden Dune drawn upon them. Behind him, someone was sulking a bit.

"Not fair! I said I didn't want enchantment tests!" the girl, Elizabeth, was now fourteen or more years old. She still had some kid attitude to her, but more as a joke, and only when they were alone, like then.

"Enchantment school is one of the fundamental schools of magic, your highness" Artos replied, moving towards the princess' back, to stare down at the homework, and then heavily sighing.

"Your highness, a spell called Rebuke what do you think will do?"

"It makes them puke, right?"

"Wrong. A cleric of an evil deity Rebukes undead, it means it shaken them for a while"

"Why can't I learn flashy spells like Fireball? Charring enemies, that's what is good to know! Or…summoning Elementals!" as she said that, some books began floating towards her, but a strict glare from Artos made them fly back at their place.

"Your highness, all schools are equally strong. Thus a need to learn them all"

"What if I want to specialize in divination? Can I renounce enchantment?"

"No, your highness, we already spoke about this: you will learn all schools of magic, and that is final" taking on his best Eleonore Like attitude, Artos crossed his arm in front of Elizabeth, who pouted but went back to her test.

Louise couldn't help but feel that the girl was just toying with Artos, but those thoughts were interrupted by the doors suddenly opening, as the king of the palace, who had seemingly grown fatter, entered followed by another man, on his thirties, maybe, strongly tanned and donning a black armor, with a fierce red glare and short carrot-colored hair, it looked amused at the scene, as Artos kneeled in front of his king, and instead the princess, Elizabeth, kept feigning ignorance, suddenly concentrated on her test.

"Ah, so studious my daughter is, the Head Librarian… Basileus," it looked more like he didn't remember Artos' name than anything, "did wonders for her education, she is now far less rebellious than before, and would certainly be the most suitable candidate for marriage, isn't she pretty, King Hazafar?"

The tanned man looked at her with a clinical eye, before laughing out loud:

"If I could see her face, instead of only a side of it! But her concentrated face is good enough too! It's a done deal, King Mabley!" then they both left, laughter still echoing in the corridor.

"Father is horrible" Elizabeth whispered, stopping writing. Artos slowly moved to her side, handkerchief in one hand, and offering it to the girl, who used it to dry out her tears.

"Hey Arty, we could run away together, couldn't we?" as she said that, Louise realized that Artos wasn't smiling at all, he was simply staring at her, with a saddened expression, filled with grief, and then he shook his head slowly.

The girl whimpered, and then dashed out of the library.

Louise thought it would be over, the dream would finish, but it didn't.

She looked out of the window, as the light changed drastically, repeatedly. Time passed as the girl didn't show herself anymore. What was the dream's purpose? Suddenly Artos held a book in his left hand, chained to his side. It looked strange. Leather covered, but filled with page, but many were empty. She didn't know why, but it felt important. It felt necessary. It felt powerful.

Then Artos moved outside, and she finally followed him out. Along the corridors, towards a studio, where he knocked thrice, before entering.

As he entered, Louise followed, and realized it had to be a dining room of sorts, where the king was still eating, albeit it being already a good half of the afternoon, he had greyish hair now, and an even bigger belly. Artos instead seemed still as young as always.

"So Today you depart, ungrateful speck of dirt" the king said with hate, "I will not see you again ever. Guards! Remember his face, for once outside of here, he will never enter again!" as two guards nodded, Artos simply bowed once last time, before exiting.

Why was his face so cold? So steeled?

He marched outside, out of the castle's inner walls, and outer ones, out into the bustling streets: Louise for the first time saw a shocking sight: people, bustling with life the city had people, lots of people, but also elves! Yet they seemed so graceful, walking and speaking with smiles, not as terrible as the legends had it. Even Half-elves! Some other small and cheerful creature which was as tall as a child, but already had a white beard, a Gnome? Strange stocky creatures with long beards which yelled "FOR MORADIN" nearly in every sentence, she saw tall and blond warriors wielding hammers, or swords, with holy symbols, she saw strange armored persons healing the wounded with prayers to strange gods like Pelor, Heironeus, Elhonna. She saw persons, dressed in leather, walk with tame wolves the size of a bear. She saw people who she thought were children actually act a scene, while others stole from the purses of those who watched. Darn Halfling? They were Halfling then. She saw all this, but she never lost sight of Artos, who entering an inn, sat down at the counter and, after dropping two copper coins at the bar-man ask a single question:

"I need directions for the wizard's guild" were his words, as his eyes showed steel in them, a type of steel that maybe, not even her mother's eyes possessed.

The bartender nodded and pointed him towards a board were on it were written strange words, which Louise herself couldn't comprehend, but of which she yet knew the meaning.

"Applications for the wizard's guild" already a list of names had been filled, and as Artos placed his name on the paper, actually taking out a quill from his inner pocket, he vanished into thin air.

Same thing for Louise, who seemed attached to what Past-Artos was doing.

When they arrived, it was on a stone floor, with arcane symbols all around them, high and tall walls, like those of a tower, encircled them, as libraries could be seen all around them, intertwined every now and then with stairs which moved upwards, towards who knew where. Sitting behind a desk was an old elf, who looked at the new arrival with a bored sight.

"New applicant?" He asked, as Artos nodded, nothing seemed to be surprising him, he had left his home, or what he called such, after a long time, yet he hadn't cared in the slightest, and what about the princess? What happened to her? Louise was curious, but she had already tried, and failed, to ask questions in the dream-world she was in.

"Tell me then, do you know what the purpose of magic is?" as the old elf asked the question, Louise too found herself searching for an answer. It had to be to help others. That was the usual answer, the one she'd give.

"I don't know." Artos replied instead, which shocked Louise even more while the old elf looked at him, a slight interest in his eyes.

"What if it were the wrong answer? Would you change it now?"

Artos shook his head once more, "I will learn magic, wherever here or as an adventurer, but I won't go back on my words never again."

"Welcome to the magic guild of Terenestia then. Please, put your Arcane Mark on this parchment, just here, and we'll get started right away with your specialties" saying that, the old elf snapped his fingers, as a parchment appeared out of thin air, straight in front of Artos.

Louise saw him for the first time gesticulate, and speak words, and finally the parchment flash briefly, as a sort of complicated drawing etched itself onto it. It resembled a hand wielding sparks and flames, and as the parchment flew back, the elf smiled seeing it, before closing the parchment and putting it no his left side. It seemed it was the only one there, as on the right there was a couple more.

"You wished for General, right?" he asked, as Artos nodded.

"Thought so, thirst for knowledge: be careful not to let it take control of you, second staircase on the right is the dorms, grab a comfortable bed of sorts and see you tomorrow down here for assigning your professors."

As Artos nodded, before moving towards that staircase, Louise followed in silence, why didn't he stay with the princess at the castle? Was he planning on taking her back through force? Didn't he care for her? He looked so…cold.

Cold, and complete emotionless, as he reached the upper level of the staircase, she could see how the *comfortable* beds were hay and some sort of cloth which would have done anything, but cover someone who was cold, tattered as they were. Yet he didn't flinch, sitting down in the hay, book in hand, he began reading it for a while, before muttering once more, touching the tattered rag, a Repair of little worth, but it did close the bigger holes.

"Why are you not crying?" Louise yelled at the figure. "Why are you acting like it's not bothering to you! Why the façade?" was she crying because he wasn't?

***End of the Dream***

As tears fell down, she opened her eyes in her bed, looking at the right side, were Arty indeed was, pensive and lost in thought.

"Why didn't you cry?" she muttered to him, eyes watery. To which Arty looked back in surprise.

"What are you…?"

"You lost people who you cared for, you were trampled by an old fat coot even after all those years of service, you were treated like a lowlife, and yet you didn't cry, why?" as she said that, she stood to sit up in bed, looking at him.

"What are you talking about? Is everything fine Louise? Did you have a nightmare?" he asked that with a smile, but what he got back was a slap.

"Stop faking it! Stop faking! I know you are not happy right now! You…you are a wizard from Terenestia, right?"

"How do you…" Arty was about to say, but silenced himself, as Louise kept slapping him.

"You liar! You told me you couldn't cast lethal spells, but you were lying! What else did you hide from me!" when Louise finally finished slapping him for all she could, she dropped her head onto his shoulder.

"I'm not a kid, Arty. I'm a noble, tell me all that you can, I can take it. I know I can…trust me"

_Did you do something?  
No, I'm not that stupid Arty._

_So why does she know?_

_Well, if she *is* a portal from the negative plane…_

_Then she is also more highly subjected to its influence._

_Sadness, pain, guilt, anger, rage, fear, hate, darkness._

_Since we are connected, and we *are* a being of arcane energy…_

_We transmit our memories to her when she sleeps._

"You're not going to tell me, are you?" she whispered, "Then I'll have to find out on my own. I'll sleep and sleep till I get the answer" as she was about to go back to bed, she felt herself being lifted by a strong grip, and put on Arty's shoulder.

"Nonsense. You slept enough for today. The exhibition is going to be soon, and you have to be in top form, so stop crying now." And when he said that, he handed her over a handkerchief. A handkerchief that Louise knew already, because she had seen it in her dream.

With that, however, she slowly took back some smile, because after all, it meant they met again, the princess and Artos…right?

"We have to depart, after the familiar exhibition…orders from her Highness" as she said that, she started moving recklessly, "Now get me down!"

"To do what?" Arty asked.

"To deliver a letter to Albion"

"The flying continent, right?" Arty said, starting to recall what he knew about the flying island.

"Yes, precisely, at Newcastle"

"Which means we are going to take the ship from La Rochelle, right?" as he asked that for confirmation, Louise nodded in reply.

"Yes we will also have an escort."

_We could use Disintegrate on the crowd. All nobles, all casualties._

_Stop it._

_Summon Undead?_

_No._

_Sheesh, you're no fun._

As Arty thought that, he stood on the stage, Professor Colbert in front of him, throwing at him fireballs which didn't have any effect. Sure, Tabitha's dragon was flying fast and all, but he was a wizard. Far more versatile.

When the flame dwindled down, and everyone was shocked to see the human familiar still alive, and completely untouched by the flames, claps ensued next. Albeit many thought of a trick being used, a voice, coming from another red-head, was yelling out loud:

"Go Darling! Go!" showing off her rack covered by the student's shirt which had been, in some way unbuttoned till the very last button and still could hold the things inside with a minimum of decency.

…_Is she for real?_

_Gravity works strangely here._

_If those don't sag in a couple of years I'm drinking holy water straight from a Pelor's church._

_Careful what you say_

Seemed like the crowd was expecting some sort of spells from the Wizard too, but when he bowed together with Professor Colbert, they still clapped, albeit with a look of *only this?* on their faces.

The prize thus went to Tabitha, because no matter what, a dragon is a dragon until a Wizard does something flashy, and the wizard in question didn't want to attract attention too much.

He did get asked by a Germanian couple if he would share his trick for avoiding fire…something about kinky play, once he realized whose parents they were…well, not that he had any doubts about it, still, he most gently disappeared from sight once more.

"Glory time is over now?" Louise asked, seeing Arty reappear close to her, a bit outside the academy.

"Yes and…what is he doing here?" Arty asked, pointing at the Gramont boy who seemed to be happily smiling on a horse, lost in dreams.

"Coming with us since he overheard everything" Louise meekly explained as she mounted on her horse.

"Got it" as Artos mounted on the one given to him.

"I have amended my ways to serve the crown, Wizard Arty" Guiche said, smiling.

"Let's us hope so then" Arty muttered, as they departed.

**Author's notes**

**GAH! I didn't know WHERE to end this chapter. So I ended it with their departure. Argh. **

**drake202: well, Tabitha's Sylphid is more resembling of a dragon than a drake, so the error came from that ^_^**

**ussopking: Good to hear that! **

**khartik9: Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 5: Fighting like a Wizard

Chapter Five

"So, how much have you trained, to be able to send people to sleep with but a hand wave, familiar Arty?" as Guiche asked that, something inside of the wizard clicked, if for but a second, with a desire to snap his neck.

"You will address me as Wizard or you will not address me at all, kid. The only one who can call me familiar is my master" as he said that, he pointed to Louise, who blushed at those words, "Did you understand?"

_You're actually enjoying the familiar thing, aren't you?_

_Hey, when it's useful it's useful._

_When it isn't?  
I'll ignore it!_

…_good to know you're coming to the dark side._

_Binding rules agreement still stands._

_I know._

"Yes f…Wizard" Guiche said, biting his tongue, if he fell asleep there, on the horse, it would be problematic.

"Wow partner, no need to be so…angry" the talking sword, Derflinger, said, being strapped to his back.

"He needs to learn respect" Arty replied, seriously.

"Yeah, but maybe you should act a bit less grumpy" the sword replied.

"Better be serious now, and be joking later, than be joking now, and be serious at his funeral" with that macabre reply, Guiche gulped heavily, as Derflinger couldn't but Sigh.

"Good, now might I inquire why there's a giant mole following us?" as Arty asked that, Louise looked surprised behind her, and sure enough, there was a giant mole digging her way through the earth like she was a fish swimming in the sea.

"That's my wonderful familiar Verdanti! Just look at her luscious fur and her marvelous eyes!" as Guiche said that, he actually dismounted to go and embrace the giant mole, which embraced him back.

Arty whistled once, and from nowhere, with a loud and tangible *crack* a crow appeared, setting himself on his shoulder. The only things strange about the crow were his eyes, red as blood, and the fact that it stood eerily silent on the wizard's shoulder.

"This is Guendaline, and *SHE* is a wonderful familiar" Arty replied, nodding as he petted the crow on the head.

"How did you do that?" both Louise and Guiche asked, surprised.

"Wizard trick" Arty replied, before whispering to Guendaline's ear something in a strange language, that both students didn't recognize. The crow nodded, and then disappeared once more, with a loud crack.

"Good." As he said that, more to himself than anyone in particular, Verdanti threw itself against Louise, tackling her to the ground. The sight made Guiche's face red, but that of Arty suddenly turned annoyed.

"You amended your ways for the crown, right?" as he asked that to the blond boy, Guiche whimpered under the tone of the words.

"Verdanti likes precious gems: maybe she's attracted by something…"

"No! The water ruby the queen gave me is not going to be eaten by a stupid mole, Arty, do something!" as Louise said that, Arty himself was about to, but a gust of wind appeared out of the air, throwing the mole away.

From a griffon, a blond man came down, a man Arty had already seen as the captain of the griffon guards of the queen.

_A captain who couldn't even realize the princess was missing last night? Must be weak._

_Weakness can be…ehi. Am I reading his thoughts right?_

_Yes WE are. THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN._

_OH no. No no and no. _

_Binding rules agreement, get to it._

"I'm sorry, but I simply had to save my fiancé from such monstrosity" as the man spoke, Guiche eyed him a bit badly, going to console his *poor* Verdanti.

"I haven't caught your name yet" Arty muttered, to which the man replied removing his hat in a slight bow of the head.

"I am Captain Wardes, captain of the griffon guards: you are my fiancé's familiar, right?" as he asked that, he slowly smiled, as Louise instead blushed, because for no apparent reason Wardes had already moved close to her, and hugged her back on her feet.

"Yes, we are bound until death do us apart" as he said that, he smiled back to the man. He was arrogant. Like a thief he knew once. A thief he personally ripped the soul out of when he wasn't looking.

"Yeah, as I am to Partner here!" replied Derflinger, with a chuckle. If a sword could chuckle, that is.

"Interesting choice of words," as Wardes said that, and his eyes closed to slits, Louise reddened even more, like a ripe tomato.

"Those were her words," Arty replied with a gentle smile.

"N-no! I was just…finishing the contract!" Louise nearly screeched looking at Arty with a shocked expression, which made both the familiar and the fiancé start to laugh.

"Well, Mr. Familiar, would it bother you if I were to steal your master away on my griffon?" Wardes asked.

"Not at all…" as Wardes placed Louise on his lap, on top of the griffon, they departed in the air.

Arty looked at the boy next to him and muttered:

"Our destination is La Rochelle, boy…though it seems funny how Wardes outright ignored you." and saying that, he began pushing his horse forward on a forced march.

"Guiche de Gramont will make himself known! Don't you worry about that!" the blond boy said, as he did the same, albeit having to mount the horse once more.

_You know, Clairaudience is such a nice spell. "Why don't we just leave them behind?" That guy makes me sick, considering his thoughts too are sickening._

_Good thing he's a conceited idiot, I'm sure he doesn't think I'm a trouble._

_You read his mind! It's obvious he doesn't think. No fair playing this game when you know the opponent's hand._

_It's his fault for not having an adequate mental protection._

_Well, "A master and a familiar should never stay too far away" and the bastard replies "Which is your sweetheart?"_

_I don't care: I don't even know why you're actually repeating what I am hearing._

_Because you ain't hearing it well enough! She replied none! She's frigid I tell you, you've got a darn mantle of Charisma, you're alive, wonderful, and…_

_You are *NOT* going to get out with flatteries._

_Suit yourself, but we are leaving the Gramont boy behind._

_No choice, I can't stay too far away from her, and with the idiot flying on a griffon, I'm doing what I can._

_The boy is going to be lost soon, maybe he'll cry a bit? Do you think he'd cry if we left him alone in a dark and rainy forest?_

"_She doesn't dislike him" now that's going to be interesting…how am I going to break the news to her?_

_What is this, Arty? Suddenly interested? No no, let me, Artos, handle it, a Demilich is the perfect solution to every problem._

_Except if the problem is a Solar._

_Hey! Those things hurt my eyes._

_Excuses._

After the first change of horses, Guiche was already too far behind to even see the beginning of the group. He didn't cry however, because he still had…Verdanti wasn't there!

"Oh no, Verdanti…you too abandoned me!" as cries of despair filled the air, Guiche howled, sending his horse on a maddening run forward, "To Victory for the Gramont!" as he yelled that to no one, the horse finally kicked in, making the boy fall face first into the ground.

The port city of La Rochelle was placed a bit after a ravine, that, when the remaining member of the group finally reached, had been set alight with burning torches, and hail of arrows started flying down on them.

On his side, Artos didn't even need to do much, except stand very still, and the arrows harmlessly fell around him and the horse, like some sort of invisible magic protected him from harm's way.

_You know, I'd like to call Lady Fortune and tell her that she's been blind long enough._

_Do so when you get your turn._

_I mean, it's been what, three centuries?_

_You're the one with skeletons in the drawer, if you can't remember it's not my fault._

_Do you think she still believes we've taken all this time to get back her husband's ring from that dragon?_

_It was her idea to pay us in advance though, why did we blind her by the way?_

_Because she wanted to sleep with us._

_So you blinded her?_

_We *were* faking being alive at the time._

_Oh yes, who did we use?_

_The stable boy: then we killed him off._

_Oh yes, now I remember too._

"Mr. Familiar, shouldn't you move?" Wardes asked from the griffon, staring in disbelief at the man who didn't seem, at all, worried about the arrows flying at him. None had yet to touch him by the way, so either he was using all his luck, or he had some sort of Arrow immunity too?

"Yeah partner, hate to say it, but you're acting like the worst of warriors ever" Derflinger muttered, offended maybe because she wasn't being used properly.

"I am not a warrior. I'm a Wizard" Arty politely replied, nodding as once more an arrow avoid him.

Before Wardes could act, however, a set of wind blades, which later became a hurricane, grabbed the highwaymen, throwing them, together with some burns, downward the ravine and unable to move because of the wounds.

Sylphid descended, with both Tabitha and Kirche on it.

"Zerbst!" Louise yelled not believing her eyes, as she dismounted Wardes' griffon.

Kirche happily jumped down from Sylphid's back, and ran straight through, avoiding Louise or Wardes, and trying to tackle down Arty who had, in the meantime, decided that no, a prismatic wall was not the best way to handle the situation.

_Though a prismatic sphere…_

_No._

_Ghoul touch?_

_You and that stupid ghoul touch. _

"Darling! I missed you so, so much! My parents were fine with us being together! They said as long as I can snatch you away from that pitiful Vallière they are fine even with a familiar!"

_The hate between families has to run deep indeed. A pity I don't have some Faustian contracts around, last time we did manage to demolish two rival families in one blow._

_Shut up, will you?_

The red-head was fiercely hugging Arty, one moment, and the next instead it was Flame.

"What? Flame! I left you in the academy!" Kirche pouted, letting go of her familiar, and looking around to see Arty behind Louise's back.

"Really" as he said that Louise turned around in shock, she hadn't even heard him do that!

Wardes raised an eyebrow, but said nothing; he would query Louise later on what her familiar could actually do.

Tabitha instead had moved closer to Artos, and grabbed a piece of his tunic, like a kid who wants to ask a question to his professor.

"How?" she asked, thinking about how useful it would be.

"Baleful Transposition, it's a Wizard trick" as he said that, he smiled back at the girl who hadn't understood, but had nodded never the less.

"Wizard?" Wardes couldn't stop himself from asking the question.

"A wizard knows trick, my familiar is a wizard, he knows these tricks" Louise replied.

"My darling is so strong!" as Kirche tackled Arty once more, once more she found herself tackling Flame.

"Darling! Stop it!"

"I'd rather you stop doing this" Arty replied with a sigh.

"So, what do we do with the highwaymen?" Louise said, to change the topic of discussion.

"We could interrogate and then leave them here for the guards of the city to take them tomorrow" Wardes suggested.

As everyone nodded, Wardes went and returned few minutes later, shaking his head "Nothing new"

_What a Liar. _

_You thinking what I'm thinking?_

_Permission granted for mind-immersion. Probe his mind like a Mind flayer would!_

_I am *not* eating his brains._

_Damn it!_

Arty said nothing, staying a bit behind the others, and then, swiftly, teleporting back to where the bandits were hidden. Staying in a Greater Invisibility he slowly but silently cast Probe Thoughts, a spell which would enable the mind of his targets to open up to him…

_That woman is still free?_

_I hate to admit it, but if I had…no! NEVER._

_If you had…what?_

_Nothing, it's wrong._

_Oh…we're getting closer. It really is in our nature to bow to the will of evil._

_No!_

_No need to hide it, it comes naturally to us._

Arty teleported back to where he had left the group, lucky to see they hadn't gone too far, he silently followed them into an inn, looking around him, admiring how the houses seemed to have been built directly from the stone façade.

"It's nearly as good as Dwarven architecture" he muttered.

"Where is my darling?" Kirche asked, looking around worriedly, once she sat at the table with the others.

Louise dismissed the question with a hand wave, "he's probably the flying chair that's moving over here" as she said that, in truth the chair stopped at a free spot next to Louise, and Arty appeared on the chair, like it was nothing.

"I got found out" he said in a teasing tone.

"I must ask: is that a magical artifact that you possess or something with you being a Wizard?" Wardes asked curiously, to which Arty replied, raising a feather, which looked to be from a pigeon.

"This thing here. I just need to think the right word and voilà, I become invisible" that said, he stashed the feather into his breast-pocket. For Louise it seemed strange, he never stashed anything in there, and usually, he didn't even explain any of his tricks to anyone... maybe it was Wardes, or maybe, and this thought slowly crept in Louise, he was toying with him.

"And what is the right word?" Wardes asked intrigued.

"Kiwi" as he said that, Arty actually became invisible, before returning visible after a moment, snapping his fingers.

"Not bad for a trick, I must say" Wardes said, "anyway, I have arrangements for us to depart tomorrow night with a ship for Albion, then we will travel by foot to Newcastle" he whispered this to the rest of the group, with Louise nodding, "but till then, I say we should rest, I'll get us some room" and Wardes, clapping his hands, moved to the counter.

_We could create a mental link with the girl._

_So that you can speak to her too?_

…_stop seeing right through me!_

_I can't avoid it: it was my very same thought. I won't risk it however with you here._

_But we're under Binding rules agreement!_

_Yes, precisely for that reason._

"So, Darling…" Kirche actually tried moving closer to him, but was interrupted, as Flame suddenly sprouted from under the bed, occupying the space between her and Arty.

"Good boy" Arty said in draconic, which sounded like a set of rasps and hisses to the rest of them, but to Flame, it was a language he knew, and thus purred happily.

"You speak with him?" Tabitha asked, curious.

"Draconic, the language of dragons and of wizards: unless you know it, you can't actually become a wizard worthy of that name" as he said that, he entered his Professor like stance, and started speaking once more.

"Dragons are inherently attached to the strings of magic, being the first progenitors of the magical system in the material plane, they are beings which are divided into spectrum of colors depending on their affinity, and all have a natural knack at magic: once old enough, they can rival in power and prowess with the oldest of wizards easily, even without having been previously trained. Each dragon has its own quirks and temperament, however, and must be dealt with appropriately depending on the encounter." As he said that, he then passed to speak about the usual weak points of the dragons, but at the mentions of the guts and bile, Kirche and Louise turned green and asked for him to stop, a pity for Tabitha, who was nodding in interest.

"By the way, what is going on in Albion right now?" as Artos asked that, Louise looked at him surprised: "you don't know?" she asked carefully.

"Well, I'm a bookworm" with that sheepishly said reply, everyone at the table nodded.

"It's like this: Albion's royal family is fighting against the rebellion, called Reconquista, whose purpose is to reunite the lands of Founder Brimir and fight for the holy lands. Without, however, the consent of the pope and the other countries' kings. To do so, however, they blinded the population of Albion, claiming that the king was corrupted and all those loyal to him had to die. Cromwell arose to power, and with that they managed to fight the royalty off till their last fortress, that of Newcastle. Furthermore, the only remaining member of that family is prince Wales, and his destiny is probably grim, if he doesn't escape." Louise explained to Arty, who nodded.

_If they had necromancers, they'd probably be fighting them off with more deaths._

_If they had US they'd probably win the entire war, even like that._

_But we won't interfere._

_No. We've got the rules laid out. I'll do my part, as long as you'll do yours._

After a moment of silence, a voice interrupted Artos thoughts:

"They had only three rooms, so I will sleep with my fiancé, while the two young misses can take another one, and the Wizard can take the remaining one, together with the blond boy, if he ever arrives, I'm sure it's fine, isn't it?" as Wardes said that, coming back towards the table, Louise blushed.

"But we're not yet married! It's not proper!"

"Do not worry, you are still my fiancé. There is nothing improper in that" Wardes replied with a smile.

Arty shrugged, when Louise turned her gaze towards him, hoping for a solution.

"I didn't actually need a room though…" he whispered, more to himself than to anyone else, but Kirche misunderstood.

"Oh, darling! I know what you're feeling: we can sleep together! Even Tabitha too can…" but as Tabitha reddened till she became an interesting mix between a tomato and a blueberry, of a nice violet shade, the door of the inn opened, and a really tired Guiche rolled in, panting heavily.

"My kingdom for a horse! Come on, who wishes to…take on the Gramont?" then, he fell down on the floor, too tired even to talk.

"The boy has more stamina than I thought" Warded muttered looking at Guiche having fallen fast asleep.

"I'll take care of him" Arty replied with a sigh, grabbing the boy like it weighted nothing, and bringing him up to his own room.

"You do not intend to eat, Mr. Wizard?" Wardes asked, just as Arty was about to reach the end of the stairs.

"While I must thank you for the interest, know that I do not have that problem." As he said that, he entered his room, with Guiche held on his shoulder like a potato bag.

Wardes kind of thought why the man referred to eating as a problem, but then shrugged., he'd ask Louise later on.

Closing the door behind him, he unloaded the *bag* on a bed, opened the door to his mansion, and then left behind two Major Illusions of him and the boy sleeping. He had a hunch things would turn out in a certain way, and he didn't want it to go to waste. He left a *gift* on his major illusion, of him snoring, of a pigeon's feather. Then, grabbing the real Guiche, he entered his mansion.

***Inside the mansion***

Guiche took some time to wake up; when he did, he realized he was in a sort of four-room wide bed of epic proportions: it was so big not even an emperor would actually have one, nor the money spent on the sheets, which looked made of the finest of silks. As he had started to think about the Valhalla, and him being dead, a more severe confirmation came from his side, when a ghostly butler dressed in a spectral golden hue, approached with what looked like a message for him.

He started crying about his young life, probably ended because of the wolves of the street, or maybe killed from afar because of a highwayman's arrow. He carefully opened the slip of paper, which held very few, and basic, lines:

**I'm in my studio, do not disturb me. NO, you are not dead. NO, the butlers are not ghosts, and NO the things you see around you cannot be brought outside, because they'll vanish once we get out of here. WHEN you get hungry, ask the butler.**

**Sincerely, Arty.**

**Ps: for question on what this is: WIZARD TRICK.**

The wizard trick part was even underlined repeatedly, and written in bold letters.

Guiche stared in awe around him, and then muttered to the butler:

"I am kind of hungry…" the butler nodded, making him gestures to follow him, and as Guiche did, he couldn't help but realize, once out of the enormous bed, that the house itself was titanic. Long marble floors and ample stairs which led up to another level; huge oaken doors and tastefully decorated corridors, with potted plants, giant frescoes on the ceiling and oil paintings on the walls, some of which, however, held a clearly moody and macabre tone. In some, Arty himself was present, staring with his cold eyes straight in front of him, dressed in purple robes, or with long black and golden vests, trimmed with strange symbols. In one, in particular, he was atop a hill, looking down below at what seemed a camped army, which was being set aflame by falling meteors. In another, wielding a black staff, with skulls carved on it, he raised it to the skies, bringing forth a wave of pure darkness, which seemed made of the hands and heads of skeletons, to strike down what looked like a peaceful white and golden castle.

Guiche couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy about it, but everything turned out alright when, sitting at an enormous table, the butlers began bringing him food enough to feed an army. Wines so delicate he had never tasted before and exotic types of food never seen before. He ate as he never could think, and nearly would have resorted to puking to eat more, had the butlers not stopped with the food to bring in the desserts, the after desserts, the coffee and many more slight post dinner appetizers. In the end, stuffed like never before in his life, not even by his mother, or grandmother, he decided to take a nap on a nearby bench.

_Verdanti is cute but I'd wager Louise is happy with the familiar she has, and wouldn't change it for all the gold in the world._

As Guiche lost himself in thoughts, a butler suddenly touched him by the shoulder, signaling him to follow. He would have, usually, asked the butler to leave him alone, but seeing how he was a guest, he decided to comply, especially because for all he knew, the butler was also the cook of the place. 

Guiche was brought towards a wall, and as the butler pressed a brick, the wall slid down with ease, revealing…

"This is a training room" Guiche muttered, seeing how there were mannequins, swords, spears, shields, armors of various type, laying all around and scattered, with giant craters circling what looked like an open field. Yet that was accessed from a wall in the house, and he being an earth mage, he realized that most probably, even if it *did* look like an open field, in fact not only it wasn't, but it was even asymmetric with the rest of the house. He followed the butler, who seemed to guide him to an armory, and pointed him at a set of staves. Out of all of them, one in particular made Guiche's eyes glint: it was made out of pure gold, with diamond extremities. It would fetch an astonishing price if someone were to sell it.

As greed took control, and his hand was just about to grab the staff, the place contorted, pushing him back like it was alive, and finally pushing out, onto an inn bed, Arty standing instead on his feet, next to him.

***Outside the Mansion***

Wardes had come and done precisely how Arty had expected him. He had taken the feather and had left. Oh the surprises he'd have the next day.

_That was especially wicked of you._

_No, that was your absolute order from the Binding rules agreement. "In the event of good and bad actions needed for a final greater purpose, one must ask the other side permission to do something, in exchange for a later permission to act in a way different from one's own alignment" So No saying it was ME being wicked. You asked for it._

…_Just admit it already, that you love ending with your hands clean._

_No._

_Strange, you did sound happy._

_Never, I am absolutely saddened and filled with grief at the thought of what will befall Captain Wardes soon._

Arty needed little to no sleep thanks to the ring of sustenance, while Artos didn't need it all. So, when he had told the boy he had been in his studio, he had actually been sleeping a little. He never trusted anyone with his sleeping body, never. One of the things he disliked, especially, was how helpless it made humans. If only he had been an Elf who only needed to trance four hours, instead of… never mind that, Guiche was nagging him to bring him back to the mansion, because he enjoyed the tour. A quick hand wave sent him to sleep, fast.

For his part, having already slept the hours needed, he started reading upon his wizard book, ready to memorize new spells, swap unneeded ones, but, more importantly, placing a Hold Portal on both the windows and the doors, which turned out to be effective, because as he finished studying, and finally closed the book to make it disappear into his pocket, he realized someone was staring at him from the window: the red-head Germanian girl, who had been trying non-stop to actually break it, with no avail.

He sighed, and unlocked the window, letting her in.

"Darling!" she whispered, entering the room, and hugging him once more, "I…" before falling asleep, and being placed in the other bed in the room.

"Done" Arty whispered, making a small booklet appear from one of his pocket, and actually reading it to let the night pass.

"Partner…why did you buy me if you aren't swinging me?" Derflinger whined, after looking at the scene.

"For having conversations. Once I get you to recall everything you know, six thousand years of knowledge have to be something incredible…think about all the knowledge…"

"Partner, are you drooling?"

"No. Absolutely not" saying that, he did however move a hand to remove the drool.

***Louise's dream***

Wardes had taken a room with separated beds. She didn't know wherever to be thankful for that or not, as she was still blushing deeply, when finally the tiredness engulfed her. She actually couldn't wait for sleep to come, and that excitement had delayed her from actually sleeping: what would she see now?

"The princess is getting married!" yelled a professor, in a small room, cramped with stuffed animals; he was a gnome, who was easily floating in the air with a broad smile, "Our adorable Flower of Terenestia is getting married soon! Princess Elizabeth Mabley of Terenestia, Second daughter of the crown, is getting married to King Hazafar of the Bedouins of the Western deserts next month!" Louise was sitting down next to Artos, who was keen in taking notes about the physiology of a celestial and dire animal, and their differences. He didn't flinch.

How many years had passed? He still had that obscenely long red hair, covering the sides of his face, and his green gaze seemed as cold as steel.

Someone murmured behind them:

"Wasn't the princess the third in line among her sisters?"

"Yes, but the eldest one died recently, she had been sickly for a while, and finally her heart gave out"

"Some says it was poisoning"

"Those are only rumors"

"Silence in class!" the gnome yelled, before flying straight in front of the group, giving his shoulders to Artos.

"You should take example from Sfor, here! Not only has he reached the third circle already, in just two years," Two years for the third circle? How was Louise supposed to learn anything in just a summer?

"But he has already scratched the fourth! And he isn't even distracted by all this" the gnome continued, as Artos simply finished his notes and handed them over, without even turning around, the gnome too, without turning around took them and nodded.

"Perfect marks as always! Take example from him if you wish to pass my Conjuration course!" as he said that, he snapped a finger, and on Artos' left side, where he held the book, a brief flash shone brightly on the chain he used to keep the book attached to his flank, and then it's tint changed to a more reddish color, from the black it had been.

"But that's not fair! He's not…" but the man in question couldn't finish the sentence, as the gnome snapped his fingers and a squid, appeared on the man's face, making the pupil in question scream and remove it, but not before being covered in deep black ink. Louise couldn't suppress a giggle, yet Artos didn't show anything, and, grabbed his stuff, moved on to the next class.

Louise found herself following him, from class to class.

"The princess is marrying in a month, you still won't do anything?" Louise asked him, once more. "She loved you, you know, you could attend" she knew it was useless to speak to him, but it didn't matter, she wanted to try never the less.

"Why are you not doing anything? Do you hate her? No, you loved her, come on: I know how you looked at her while teaching her magic"

Louise sighed: she knew she would never get any reply. On a side note, it seemed that Artos' sleeping arrangements had changed: now he had a room of his own with a desk, a table, a chair, a bed at least worthy of being called bed, and a window. For once she found herself looking outside, and the sight made her gasp. It was above the sky! Like Albion, the school itself was flying, above the skies!

A noise of paper being scrapped brought her back to the sight in the room. A letter had been torn with…anger, by Artos, and thrown in the bin.

"Never, he said never, and never is final! Let him die and let him suffer, and may darkness claim his soul!" then he opened a book and started reading it, as the façade of steel slowly resurfaced on him.

That intrigued Louse, who took a moment to look at the bin, where a broken into pieces letter was, and, still visible, albeit torn, was a picture of what looked like a…dove with a sword in hand.

"That's the symbol of Terenestia's royal family, right? Hey, you are actually receiving letters from the princess, right?" Louise asked, once more. The man however didn't reply. He never did. She looked at him for a moment, and then gasped as he closed the book.

"Fine! But only because I wish to know! I'm not doing it for him" as he said that, he stood up, grabbed the torn paper, and yelled the words for the repair spell, putting it back together. It actually held an invitation for the marriage, next month, and a letter, handwritten, but not in feminine calligraphy. It was a written by hand pardon, by the king himself. Louise thanked the fact that Artos was reading while sitting on the chair, or she would have never been able to read it too.

_My health is lacking, Artos Basileus Sfor, and I fear I will not reach the next month. I need to speak to you before Pelor claims my soul, and St. Cuthbert judges it. I order you as your king: come, or I will have you chased to the end of the world, and no haven will be safe forever from my wrath. You are pardoned from your exile out of the castle, and are to immediately report back to me._

The letter looked more like a menace, than an actual pardon, but still, Artos gritted his teethes, and folded it.

"Fine." The room blurred, as Louise found herself seeing the entrance of the castle. It hadn't changed much, expect for the guards, who now were half with the symbols of Terenestia, and half with the symbols of the golden dune, which Louise realized had to be because of the Bedouins.

The guards didn't stop him, as he held straight in front of him the letter from the king himself. Pardon letters usually had a symbol on their back, so that it could be shown without revealing the contents of the letter. At least, that was the Terenestia way of doing things.

Louise could see what looked like a young boy in his fourteen riding a horse in the inner garden, which had been removed of the flowers, and had instead been filled with dirt and made into a joust ring. "They removed the flowers…it's a pity" as she whispered that, she couldn't help but see how Artos had given but a slight sight at the thing, and had entered the inner palace. A guard there guided him to the audience room, where the king was sitting, albeit looking more paler than ever, and holding in his right hand a piece of roast pork and a cup of wine. Louise couldn't help but stare at how big the room was, tall columns, gold statues, rich tapestries, but a lousy and fat king. To that she noticed that the audience room was devoid of the usual gibbering nobles or aristocrats, instead, there were soldiers. _It smells like a trap…_

"Finally! Took you long enough" as he said that, he moved a hand, and suddenly, Artos was surrounded by pikes. _So it was a trap!_

"Kneel in front of your king" the king said, with a menacing voice, as the soldiers readied their pikes to strike at the minimum sign of chanting, as Louise was staring surprised at all of this, yelling:

"THAT'S my familiar! Don't you dare menace my familiar! I am Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière and I will not have you menacing my famil..." but she stopped, because Artos actually kneeled.

"Hey…why are you kneeling?" Louise muttered, looking shocked.

"Good, so it seems you know your manners, well then…this will come by easily enough" as he said that, he moved another hand and a woman, which had been shackled at her hands and feet, and had a sort of sack on her head, was pushed forward from behind a column, and fell on the ground right in front of the kneeling Artos.

"This woman" as the king said that, he pointed at her "has covered in shame the crown of Terenestia, spewing false words and lies. Now, she's already lost her tongue, and is soon to lose her head too, however, since my daughter's marriage is so close, I came up with a better idea." As he nodded to a guard, next to a nearby door, the guard knocked twice, and a woman, with blond hair, and with a face that Louise recognized easily as that of Elizabeth, entered, stopping at the sight, and looking shocked and what she was seeing.

"Father…what is the meaning of this?" she asked, looking only slightly towards the kneeling man, but then immediately back at the king, _she had to have recognized Artos, he doesn't even look aged! _Louise thought.

"You keep on refusing to marry, even though the invitations have already been sent. So, I decided to solve the problem once and for all: you will marry the king of the Bedouins, or I will kill that man over there" as he said that, pointing at Artos, Elizabeth paled.

"To be more precise; if you wish to shame me, then you may order him beheaded now, and I will stop the marriage with the king of the Bedouin, claiming he has defiled you" as the king said that, Louise couldn't help but spit at the horrible man, but the spit simply disappeared into the air.

"You're a monster!" Louise yelled, as she looked at Artos who, instead, hadn't still said a word, but was looking down at his feet, kneeling and waiting.

"WHY DON'T YOU SAY SOMETHING!" Louise yelled at him, but then, a thought occurred: _what would it matter? He can't do anything right now, he's powerless. He's but a toy for the king…a living toy…_as she thought that tears began falling once more, was her familiar past really that horrid and saddening?

"Father…" Elizabeth too was without words, but her father, the king, didn't stop there:

"To finish it off, if you do marry, then the woman there will die. If you don't, however, and behead him, the woman will be left to go untouched" as he said that, a look of shocked realization dawned on Artos, who began sweating, Louise could hear him mutter.

"No…not possible" whispered so fast and so insanely that she still couldn't understand.

"TAKE ME" he yelled finally, trying to launch himself forward, but being stopped by the guards behind him, who kept him down.

"Behead me! Don't kill the woman! BEHEAD ME!" he yelled even more, for once showing an entire set of emotions, one harder than the other, one stronger than the other, rage, anger, fear, hate.

Louise was more than surprised, _why now? What did he find out? What did he realize?_

"Shut him up" the king muttered, and a gag was placed around his mouth, as he kept on lamenting and screaming.

"LET HIM GO!" Louise yelled, trying to punch her way through, but to no avail, they were made like butter, slipped through, or around, and she couldn't stop them, no matter what.

"I choose…" Elizabeth said after a while…

"Louise, wake up!" yelled a voice.

"To…" as the princess finished that sentence Louise couldn't help but see the king smirk.

"Nooooo" howled Artos free from the gag, but at that point, Louise was woken up by Wardes, who was shaking her.

***Out of the dream***

"Louise! Wake up! You were having a nightmare!" Wardes said, looking worried.

"No! NO!" she yelled in frustration, hitting the sides of the sheets, still shivering, and sweating.

"What happened?" he asked her.

"No…it can't be true" she whispered once more, shaking her head.

"What can't, Louise?" Wardes asked once more.

"Nothing, it's nothing" she meekly replied, trying to stand up, but wobbly on her legs. Did all that really happen? How did …if her familiar was alive, he suffered through that…but then…why?

She went to the basin, to wash her face, and realized she had cried in her sleep too, her face was a mess. As she washed it up, she didn't dare to go back to sleep, and so stayed awake, waiting for dawn to come.

In another room, where Arty was, he too was waiting for dawn to come.

***The day at La Rochelle***

When dawn came, Arty could hear knocks at the door, as he went to open it, he was surprised to see Wardes, standing there.

"I would like to challenge you to a duel, to see if you're worthy of…"

"Not interested" Arty replied, closing the door straight on Wardes face.

The look on the captain of the griffon's guard was priceless, he clearly hadn't heard well enough, so he knocked again.

The door opened once more, and once more, with Arty at the door, Wardes said:

"I'm challeng…" and the door closed again.

Since there is no two without three, Wardes knocked once more, this time, wand in hand and ready to beat the hell out of the familiar, but the one who opened this time was the fierce red-head Germanian, with her rack out in the air, a sight which made even Wardes' face redden fiercely.

"You're finally looking for some fun? Leave the flat chested prudish girl, and come to this fierce Germanian girl" as she opened her arms, Wardes stumbled backwards, and excused himself after quickly seeing that no, Arty was no longer in the room, nor hiding under the bed.

"You can come out, darling" as Kirche said that, Artos actually reappeared in the center of the room.

"Why didn't you want to fight him?" she asked, curious as still half naked, she moved near him, the two things bouncing pleasantly for anyone who would have murdered to be in Arty's place, except for Arty himself.

"Well, because it's still not the right moment" he replied, handing back to her the upper side of her shirt, she refused it, however, hugging him bare-breasted.

"I say you owe me a favor" she said.

"You do realize there's a sleeping skirt chaser in the room" Arty replied, hoping this would suffice to move her away.

"We can always ask him to join" she replied.

"I'm in if she asks" muttered Guiche, standing up on the bed.

"I'm in only if you are too Arty" Kirche replied, and sighing, Arty tried to move his hand to put them both to sleep, once more, but instead Kirche quickly blocked his hand.

"Not going to…" work again. Instead it did, and they both feel to their sleep once more.

"Really, the hand wave is just for show" he muttered, dressing Kirche back up and putting her to sleep again.

"Well, they call it beauty sleep, right?" as he spoke to no one in particular, he moved outside of the room, careful to avoid any presence of Wardes, and finally, going for a walk to town. They had to depart later that night, and he couldn't stay too far from his master, but at least the nearby streets were available to him for a stroll.

As he did walk near a crepe seller, he sat down on a bench right next to it.

"Want a crepes mister?" the man asked, to which Arty smiled.

"Cut the crap. Can't read the thoughts of a crepes seller? What am I, a youngster?" he retorted with a wide grin.

"You got me, it seems" as he said that, the crepes seller actually changed form, as the old crepes seller appeared right next to Arty, sitting down next to him.

"I didn't, you decided you wanted to get caught" Arty replied, seriously.

"So, how are you doing?" the old crepes seller asked, as he began munching on a crepes himself.

"You know I actually hate you the most, right?"

"Yeah, I know, would be surprised if you didn't"

"So…why do I get the honor?" Arty replied, uncomfortable. Even Artos himself was staying quiet. They both know who he was, or better yet, what he was.

"Because there's a bet going on, and I'm here to make sure it stays fair and interesting while the pot stays the same" as he said that, the old man became an attractive blonde woman.

"A bet? You're playing with fire here" he replied.

"Please, they are playing with fire, I'm only here to see how it goes" as the woman said that, she stood up, showing some nice curves that, however, nobody in the streets seemed to notice.

"And get yourself some fun while at it" Arty replied.

"If you," and with those words she licked her lips, "want to get some fun in those old creaky bones of yours, just call me, okay?"

"I'll rather…smash my head against a wall"

"You're really no fun," and with that, the woman disappeared in the crowd.

_Is that thing gone?_

_She's never really gone, you know._

_Yeah, makes me shiver. At least if she had some sort of definition._

_No more thoughts on that, thanks._

_So, what do we do now?_

_We do what we always try to do._

_Take over the world?_

_No Artos, we try and make them learn that to play with fire one gets scorched._

With those words, Arty stood up, with determination in his face, as he moved back towards the inn. As he did, however, he stumbled across a green haired woman with glasses, who was far too familiar for him to forget. Especially her thoughts. She was turning into a side corner of a shady inn, and Arty followed her in pursuit, silent, but, especially, invisible. The thief, Fouquet, had some sort of thoughts which made the Wizard in her pursuit think carefully about his plan of action. Considering everything he had till now…

_You know you could disintegrate her, here and now?_

_She's sending money to an orphanage through her thieveries, she's not inherently evil._

_So what? She tried to kill you! US!_

_She actually tried not to, are you reading what I'm reading?_

_Like it matters, she's realized someone is following her, nice instincts there. _

_Can't fool us however._

_No one can fool us any longer and LIVE._

Suddenly, Fouquet stopped perceiving the guy who had been tailing her for half an hour.

She hoped no one had recognized her, as she prepared to engage in conversation with the mercenary leader, for another *assistance* related prospect.

When she entered the inn, however, the shady one where she had engaged them firstly, she found out that only the mercenary leader was there. Badly wounded.

She sat down in front of me, and muttered, her face covered.

"You failed it seems"

"All my men are in jail, except for me. I got lucky and managed to free myself in the nick of time" the leader replied.

"You have more men to spare, certainly?"

"I do, but those are going to cost you more, they aren't the new recruits exactly" as he said that, he waved to a group of bigger and meaner thugs, who had been feigning ignorance at the side of the counter.

"Then let's hope you can manage it. The pay is three hundred Ecus if you can stall them long enough"

"Fair deal, miss. Half now and half later" as the thief grumbled and accepted, a big sack of coins passed hand.

"Do not fail again" she whispered, standing up to leave.

"We won't" and as the thief exited, she saw another customer enter.

She couldn't avoid but think the customer had a sort of familiar air, but then shook her head, cutthroats were the same everywhere.

***Later, that night***

Kirche and Guiche had woken up, and had been surprised when Tabitha had told them it had already passed a day.

They couldn't even recollect how they had ended up sleeping for an entire day. Wardes, in the meantime, had spoken to Louise, who hadn't left her room at all:

"Your familiar isn't here?" he asked once more.

"No, and I can't seem to contact him through the normal means…" as she said that, Louise was referring to how all familiars shared a sort of empathic bond with their masters, and how they could, eventually, see in each other's eyes and more stuff like that.

"Then he did what I feared the most" as Wardes said that, he moved closer to Louise and held her by the shoulders.

"He left you, my fiancé, to find fortune elsewhere, I'm afraid. He has escaped, leaving you to fend off by yourself"

Louise looked in shock at Wardes, before a thought crossed her mind, soon turned into words:

"No, he would never…"

"I didn't want to break it off to you like this: but I think he has never told you the truth, ever. He also seemed to be a coward and a horrible person, and I don't think he's somebody you should have…"

"Shut up Wardes. Shut up" as Louise replied coldly, Wardes couldn't believe his ears. Had the young, sixteen years old girl, who had always lived in his shadow, and was prone to become red and stay quiet, just told him to shut up?

"Louise…"

"Shut up Wardes, you know nothing about him. Before spouting such nonsense use your damn brain. Or did you become the captain of the Griffon guards just because you knew how to rant?" as she said that, she stood up, and left for the first time her room.

Wardes took a moment to put his mandible back in place.

Louise walked out of the door of the inn, looking at the night sky, and muttered seriously:

"Arty?"

"Here" came the swift reply, as Arty actually appeared to her side.

"Next time you leave without notice, I'm punishing you" Louise muttered, looking at him.

"I didn't go that far" Arty replied, trying to dismiss the fact.

"No. I'm serious. A master and a familiar are one. If you disappear without warning me, I don't know what to think"

"You know I can't go far" Arty replied, smiling.

"So? I'm sure you'd find a way to leave, if you wanted to" Louise replied.

"Sure. But now, please, get back" saying that he grabbed her by the neck and threw her on the ground, behind him and back into the inn. The next moment, a big stone fist crushed down, where Arty had been a second before.

Louise stood back up, wand in hand.

"Arty?" as she said that, she heard a laughter come from up above.

"I knew it! Attacking you both made him stay behind! So predictable!" as she said that, Fouquet the crumbling earth looked down, from the side of her golem, with a wicked smile.

"You know, you should be sure you actually killed him, before saying things like this" Louise muttered, lowering her wand.

"What? What are…" and then, obviously, Fouquet fell asleep, as the golem crumbled to dust. Flying down, holding Fouquet in his arms, was obviously Arty himself.

"Really. It's no fun if you don't at least think I can die" he muttered, with a teasing smile, as he held the woman in his arms.

"What can I say? I'm starting to know you" saying that, she smiled back to the man, and then, looking at the woman, wondered out loud:

"What do we do with her?"

"We obviously kill her" as Arty said that, without even giving a second thought, Louise shivered.

"What?" she couldn't have heard that, no, she couldn't.

"We. Kill. Her." Artos replied once again.

As Wardes came out from the inn, and looked at the scene, he just about managed to mutter:

"That's Fou…" that the woman suddenly burned up into a loud flame, screaming like any living being would, when fire and flames so strong and fiery hit the skin and burned the fat, and the muscles, and charred the bones. All while in Arty's arms. Finally, with a Louise too shocked to speak, and Wardes who stared shocked too at such a display of cruelty and power, Arty closed his arms completely, smashing the bones into fine black powder, which flew away in the wind.

He then clasped his hands, to remove the ash from his hands.

"What?" he said raising an eyebrow, "I am *Not* going to let such a dangerous mage go away unpunished. You escape once? The fault is mine, you escape twice? Then something is not right"

"I can…understand that. Kind of." Wardes said, uneasily, "but did you have to burn her alive?"

"It is better this way, so the lesson sinks in completely." Arty replied.

"The lesson?" Guiche muttered, coming out from the inn's door, together with Kirche and Tabitha who, while not having seen the fact, had heard the screams and had dashed outside.

"Yes...those who understand the lessons are few, but they exist." Replying in such a way, Artos whistled back to his room, leaving Louise still speechless, there where she stood.

"Louise, what happened?" Kirche asked, worried.

"He…" she whispered, before placing a hand in front of her mouth, and puking at the side of the inn's entrance.

"He burned Fouquet the Crumbling Earth alive, after having put her to sleep." As Wardes whispered that, both Tabitha and Kirche looked shocked.

"So this isn't only the golem's dirt…eh…" Guiche muttered, as he had been swiping it away with magic, but stopping to faint.

"I…I have to go speak with him" Louise said, trying her best not to look at the small pile of ash that once had been Fouquet.

"Let me come too, in case he becomes violent" Wardes said, wand in hand, but Louise shook her head.

"No. He'll have reasons. He always has reasons." Furthermore, she couldn't admit it herself, but Wardes would probably suffer the same fate of Fouquet, if he even tried something like that.

As she made her way near the door, she couldn't help but feel nervous, as she knocked, but heard no replies, she opened the door, and stumbled into the dark room. The door closed silently behind her, and there, sitting on the chair, which slowly flew to turn around to face her, was Arty, with Guendaline on his lap.

Facing her, he muttered with a wicked grin.

"I was expecting you, Miss Vallière."

"…Explain yourself" Louise said, after a brief minute of disbelief. She kind of had expected him not to be there. Or to be invisible. Not to be sitting on a chair with a crow on his lap, caressing it like it was a cat.

"I would, if I could." He replied, shrugging.

"You were cruel, you are never cruel"

"So, what was it? Was I cruel, or was I not cruel?" Arty asked back with a smile, as Guendaline, croaked words?

"CRA! The girl doesn't know! CRA! The girl is afraid! CRA!"

"The crow speaks?" she asked, but then shook her head "No, that's to be expected from you, the unexpected…now explain to me your diabolical plan, before I decide to use the wand and beat the hell out of you with it" as she said that, she grabbed her wand aiming at him.

"Oh Miss Vallière, certainly! Follow me into my death trap, please." Saying that, he smirked opening his Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, and Louise slowly, followed him through.

"You know, I'm playing up with your farce because…wait. FOUQUET!" she yelled surprised, as she saw the woman in the mansion, taking the sun near the beach area.

She was actually there, taking the sun. Dressed in a beach outfit which gave little to no imagination. With ghostly butlers, so there were more than one, each doing a different thing, like massaging her thighs, or covering her in oil lotions, or making her shadow with an umbrella, or even using a fan to cool the air near her.

"Tell you what: I'm blowing you to smithereens first, and later. Then I'm asking where I can find a swimsuit."

"My explanation is really easy, you see"

"No…start running…speak later" Louise was furious. Utterly furious.

As she began chanting the *fireball* spell, she suddenly realized she could throw…something else.

And then, from the tip of her left hand…

"Magic missiles!" she yelled the chant, and a single, flimsy dart of force threw itself forward, this actually surprised Artos so much that he reflectively went for Shield absorbing the small dart.

"Who…who taught you this?" he whispered.

"You…you did" she whispered back.

**Author's notes**

**Well, it seems the point now is: Harem, Fouquet, Henrietta or?**

**That aside, it's obvious that one as charming, funny, and melodramatic as Artos has a few things to do. Yet…we will see how it goes in the next chapter. **


	6. Chapter 6: Darkness Everlasting

**Attention readers. This chapter is much grimmer and darker. Read at own risk. This is probably one of the chapters that make the M rating a reason.**

Chapter Six

"So, you realized she had no choice but obey her higher-ups, so in exchange for information on Reconquista, you let her fake her death?" she asked once more, at Arty who was actually inside some sort of transparent shield, which had barred many of her attacks from hitting him. She had known only about Magic missile, from somewhere deep within her soul, and once cast four times, it had already stopped coming out, so, after resorting the normal magic system, to no avail expect for weak explosions of sorts, Louise had begun thinking about actually talking to Arty.

"Precisely, he's really a nice guy." The thief Fouquet, or better yet Ms. Longueville, or even better Matilda, as she let herself being called by Arty, said with a smile. She was being pampered by another set of ghostly butlers, who proceeded to dry her off, and even change her back into her clothing, after placing a divider of paper between her and them. Louise on the other hand was red with anger.

"You made me look at that horrible show!" she yelled at him.

"It was to completely fool Wardes" Arty replied, "He was the one who hired Matilda" as he said that, Matilda actually nodded too.

"Yes, he's from the Reconquista faction."

Louise stared in shock at that revelation, shaking her head.

"No! I mean, he's captain Wardes! He's the captain of the royal griffon guards!" Louise replied, "And you trusted the words of a thief!" Arty hadn't seemed that stupid…maybe he had fallen for her…breasts?

"Just because she's got decent…things…don't mean you should just believe what she says!" she yelled at him, reddening.

"Things? I don't know what you're talking…" Matilda started saying, before realizing where actually Louise's eyes were set; with a smirk, she casually crossed her arms under her breasts, to give more resolution to them.

"Oh, these things" she replied, with a really feminine giggle, "No, Arty here is a gentleman, he wouldn't fall for that…would he?" as she asked that, she actually turned towards Arty, whose gaze, however, didn't falter even for a second.

_We saw Nymphs. Playing in the water. Mermaids singing along the coast. _

_Furthermore, we did see the beauty of a god too._

_WHY DID YOU MAKE ME REMEMBER THAT! AARGHHHHHH DAMN HIM AND DAMN HIM THRICE!_

"No, I would not. Louise, you'll have to trust me on this, Wardes is with the Reconquista faction. We can arrest him only when he proves it, however."

_Then we can kill him with ease._

_Fine._

Louise bit her lower lip, lost in thoughts, was her familiar saying the truth? Was Matilda saying the truth? How could Wardes actually be a traitor?

"You can't tell me why you're so sure about it?" Louise asked, but Arty shook his head, "Is this a trust test?" she asked once more, surprising Arty.

"Did I ever make trust tests with you?" he asked back.

"You used to with…" but she bit her tongue; she couldn't just barge in Elizabeth, no?

"What I used to do and what I do now are different" he replied.

_We did trust test the Gramont boy, and he failed._

_Well, a golden staff with diamond extremities? No one would resist that one _

_A fail is a fail._

_Right._

"Then, what do we do now? We are at La Rochelle, even if we do arrest Wardes, there is no way we can detain him till Albion and back, he'll certainly manage to escape" Louise said, starting thinking, placing her right hand on her left chin and slightly tapping the chin with her index finger.

"Well, I think I've got the coast clear to leave now…anywhere in La Rochelle, but not the inn, would be fine, Arty" Matilda said, slightly moving near Arty who had, in the meantime, removed his Globe of invulnerability spell. She actually gave him a kiss on the cheek, taking him by surprise, and then giggling waited for his move, when Arty tapped on her shoulder twice, making her disappear, Louise had already thought of at least three different types of torture to make her familiar try.

"…You know, I think I can keep on bashing at you with the wand" Louise muttered, moving closer with her wand in hand.

"Shouldn't we instead get out of here and calm down the rest of the group?" as Arty said that, Louise could actually see from the door left open, that Wardes, Guiche, Tabitha and Kirche were in the room, looking around worriedly for signs of battle.

"We can even hear them, actually, if we get near the door" as Arty said that, Louise muttered:

"What do we do with Wardes, still?"

"Nothing, worst to worst I'll take care of him" as Arty said that and shrugged, Louise looked at him perplexed, but then whispered:

"Just…not like you faked Fouquet's death, okay?"

"Fine" he whispered back, as they both reappeared in the room, after passing the white door.

As they did, Wardes immediately threw an air blade at Arty, which dispersed into nothingness inches before touching him or Louise.

"Please. We just finished talking" Arty muttered, "And I think we should hurry to the ship too"

"Is everything fine, now?" Guiche asked, looking from Arty to Louise and backwards.

"Yes Guiche, everything is fine. We can go Wardes" as Louise said that, she began moving out of the inn's room, followed by the rest of the group, Wardes next to her, with a worried expression.

Arty took on whistling until they reached the pier, as Kirche and Tabitha followed him in silence, while Sylphid flew up above them, and Flame hurriedly walked next to his master. Guiche was walking next to Arty, if a bit nervous, sometimes simply jumping to the side whenever Arty made a move with his right hand.

The ship they embarked on was a merchant ship transporting sulfur, which reeked from the wooden crates all around.

"Why all the sulfur? Summoning a fire elemental?" Arty casually asked.

"You don't know?" Wardes was for the first time surprised, as the ship began sailing towards the continent.

"No, I do not still possess that knowledge" the wizard replied bitterly. He hated not knowing things, but, more than that, he hated the fact that he had grossly undervalued the library of the Magic Academy; it actually was big enough for him to waste weeks in it, as it seemed to bend space to store in far more books than normal.

Only his library was bigger, and he had taken hundreds of years to fill it, but if this plane was more than six thousand years old, there obviously were meant to be a lot of books.

"Sulfur is used for making gunpowder, which is then used for cannons or muskets to fire their cannon balls or bullets forward" as Wardes said that, a face filled with disbelief actually appeared on the Wizard.

"Cannons? Cannon balls? Bullets? Muskets?" as Arty blinked at each word, he had no idea what the man was talking about.

"Those things are cannons, for example" Wardes said, pointing at one of the strange oblong steel things at the side of the ship.

"I thought those were gnomic flamethrowers" as Arty said that, however, he suddenly realized that he had not seen a single gnome, yet. Or a Dwarf. Sure, he had expected in a human magic academy not to be, since some human countries tended to be racist, but he had read about Elves and their magic, and so had thought nothing about not seeing someone of another race.

"Gnomic?" Wardes asked not understanding the word.

"Arty's world comes from a place where there are more sentient races than here" Louise explained at the rest of the shocked group.

"There are Gnomes, which are small tinkerers, Halflings which look like kids, even when adults, there Dwarfs, Half-elves, and Elves, and they all leave in peace together in cities with humans." As Louise said the final words, many faces paled. Especially Guiche and Kirche's.

"To tame the elves? From what strange country do you come from?" Guiche asked shocked.

"Plane. Different plane," as Tabitha was the one that answered they turned to her, who reddened in surprise, "He explained," she added to her defense.

"So, anyway, what do these cannons and bullets do?" Arty asked, curiously.

"Hey partner" The sword muttered on his back, "Why don't you just touch one and be done with it? At least you'd use your familiar powers once" Derflinger was actually bitter. The sword hadn't been swung in what? Days? Weeks? For her it already had been years or centuries. Why was it that when he finally found a user, said user would resort to his own magic instead of using him!

"You say it would…" as Arty stormed off immediately, everyone stared at him touching one of said cannons, and as the Gandalfr's runes shone brightly for a moment, Arty actually began…giggling?

He moved from cannon to cannon, laughing out hard.

"Did he just lose it?" Kirche asked worriedly.

"My kingdom for a musket!" he yelled laughing as he made his ways below deck.

"Louise…did I just break your familiar?" Wardes asked, at Louise who was staring the point where Arty had actually been giggling.

"I…don't know" she replied eerily.

It took a good half an hour to calm down a laughing wizard who had in the meantime grabbed a pistol and was hugging it tightly yelling things like:  
"My precious…"

Another good half an hour went by with him dancing to an imaginary waltz with Louise, Tabitha, Kirche, and he was also about to get Wardes to join the fray when he pointed a wand at him.

After a good hour of nearly repressed chuckles, the rest of the group went to bed, tired as they could possibly be. Except Arty, who stayed on the upper deck, Tabitha, Kirche and Louise stayed in one room, while Wardes and Guiche went in another.

_Hey. I feel like we found a gold mine._

_Gold? This is more than gold. This is perfect._

_Think about giving this type of inscription to skeletons. Or zombies._

_Think about all the weapons we will be able to discover and use. Even ancient and forgotten ones will have no secrets!_

_You know what._

_What?_

_You're naïf. Let's use this to conquer this world, think about the damage zombies armed with muskets could do._

_No. We must use this to knowledge *reaper* to discover more things. Let's start by calmly analyzing it, and then rewrite it in order to be able to know EVERYTHING._

…_I like the way you're thinking_

Thinking that Arty nearly started dancing again, while muttering "I like the way I'm thinking, I like the way I'm thin…"

A chuckle brought him back to attention, as he turned around to see one of the sailors smile widely at him.

"And here I was, thinking I could reach Albion safely…and yet you're still here?" as the sailors slowly removed a fake beard, Matilda's face appeared underneath.

"You had to take the same ship as us, did you?" Arty sighed, looking at the thief.

"Well, it *was* the only one going to Albion, even with all the problems of the revolution" she replied, moving closer to the wizard, who actually grabbed her by the waist.

"I'm still in the mood for dancing, would you kindly?" he replied with a smile, and Matilda actually blushed at such a display of…direct approach?

"but there's no…" she wanted to reply, as suddenly a light motif echoed in the air, the power of a quickened Illusory sound, a small cantrip, sometimes used to scare off other people with loud noises, could actually reproduce a high level orchestra.

"There are no excuses now" Arty replied, as they slowly began dancing on the upper deck, basked in the moonlights, since there was, after all, more than one moon.

"I must say, you know how to dance…" she whispered back at him.

"Obviously…I learned a lot of tricks in my life" he replied, with that gentle smile of his.

"You are full of surprises aren't you, Arty?" she replied with a chuckle.

"I am a constant surprise…"

_I'm going to feel sick, and puke, if this horrible and nauseous display of utter idiocy and hormone raging doesn't stop in the next five seconds._

_Oh right, I do have a Demilich in the head._

_WE ARE a Demilich. I understand we might NOT be the usual type of crackling flying skull, but do please notice that WE HAVE NO PROBLEMS IN KILLING AND BUTCHERING HER WHEN WE GET OUT OF HERE._

_So…oh… Jealous? _

_NO._

_You do seem jealous though._

_I'm a Demilich. Undead. No feelings. Utterly bored half of the time, utterly angry the other half._

_I'm living, however. Good guy. All feelings._

_Yeah, that's the problem._

_It's not a problem._

_Feelings make people weak. Feelings brought you to…_

_Shut up._

The music stopped after a while, and, after a brief moment of silence and standing still, which was however enough to make it embarrassing, they separated, the woman red in the face, which she covered by putting back up the fake beard, the man by chuckling slightly.

***Louise's Dream***

She had to share the room with Kirche and Tabitha, which actually eased her into relaxing, thinking that, whatever she was going to dream that night, it wouldn't' be too horrible. Maybe. She didn't relax until long in the night, and when she did, sleep caught her like a falling brick catches an unwary passerby.

The scene was the same of the last night, there was Artos, standing there, surrounded by pikes and kept down by the guards, but he was no longer fighting. Even the king had a pale face on him.

"What?" the king said; utterly shocked.

"I said you can behead him, I wish to not marry the king of the Bedouins" the princess replied, albeit with a sad look on her face.

Louise too was shocked. She actually did what Artos had asked her? She had chosen to be disgraced, to save the life of someone she didn't know, just because Artos had asked her to? What was that selfless love?

"Guards, keep the gag on the wizard, shackle him and have him sent to the prisons, he'll be beheaded tomorrow. Send for the ambassador. I'll have to offer the King of the Bedouins my eldest daughter, because my youngest one has been defiled by the ex-head librarian" as he said that with spite, he added "take the princess away. She's mourning her debased existence"

Louise stared, before the scene actually changed once more: it looked like a prison cell, in it, Artos was laying, without his book, with his clothes tattered and in rags, and shackles placed on his wrists and legs, so tight that Louise could actually see his hands slowly turning paler.

"Hey, so how did you escape from here?" she asked, to the man who was her familiar, and who was now having the other woman, albeit still with a sack over her head, lay on his stomach.

The woman tried gurgling something, but Artos keeping his eyes closed, and without using his mouth, because it was gagged, had a sound begin in a low whisper:

"It is fine Guendaline…they'll free you after I'll be beheaded probably. Or a bit after. You'll be fine, really. Sucks we had to meet again in such a way, eh?" as he said that, he actually moved his chin close to the woman, trying to make her realize he was there, was he?

"Who is Guend…"Louise wanted to ask, she recalled Artos calling his crow familiar Guendaline, so who was the woman with the same name? But as Artos began talking again, albeit without using his mouth, maybe magic? Something told her about illusory sound magic, a low level spell, which could be easily done even if shackled and silenced, but at a great effort. She kept silent, wanting to hear every bit of the words, which sounded reassuring.

"You remember mother? She used to always cheer us when we got bullied. She prepared that apple pie that she liked so much, and talked us of how we would have a bright future…we used to play near the river's creak, even if she scolded us. It was such a nice feeling, the warmth of the sun…" as he whispered that, tears began falling down his cheeks.

"I am sorry, that I couldn't be there for you till now, sister of mine" as the final words echoed into the cell, Louise suddenly remembered how there were two children in the river, and while one was clearly Artos, she had never wondered about the second.

"Wait…she's your sister right? You don't have a plan? Come on, you're a wizard. You're full of tricks" Louise whispered to him, "You can't even be sure it's her, for all you know it's a ruse from the king! Come on!"

Then the doors of the cell opened up once more, and a sleazy guardsman grabbed the sack-woman, without saying a word to the cold stare of Artos, he brought her outside.

"So, they freed her, right? Well, how did you escape from here then?" as she asked that, she saw the small flicker of light coming from the prison's cell move, as time passed.

When the dawn came once more, the cell opened once more, and the princess herself, albeit covered in a cloak, came in. Artos was half asleep, when she saw her enter with what seemed like…a sack? What was she…the next instant the sack was placed firmly on Artos' head, as his body went numb from magic.

"What are…"Louise had no idea, but she stared as the princess muttered magic after magic, transforming the clothing and the body, albeit only as an illusion, of Artos into his sister.

"You can't be…"she whispered, as the princess then called for the guard to come and take him away. The same sleazy guard of the night before.

Louise followed, even without realizing it, the scenery was blurring with every step they made, until it became clear where they were: just a bit outside the city, in the full bright of the scorching midday. There, Artos was unshackled, and dumped with a broken bag of sort at the side of the road, and then the corpse carrier of the prison moved on.

Louise realized how they actually brought him out: as a corpse amidst corpses.

"So the princess managed to save you, and your sister, aren't you happy about that?" Louise had finally taken a sigh of relief, the bad adventure had finally finished, and the dream was turning out to be happier than she thought.

"Naivety has a price, girl" a voice muttered at her back.

For the first time, someone replied to her, and as she slowly turned around, she could see it, the flying skull.

"Well, well, seems like it worked out how I thought it would. Good, this gives us time to chitchat, while the moron cries his heart out" as he said that, the skull kind of seemed like having a grinning tone at him.

"What…" _are you talking about?_ She wanted to ask, but the howling behind her made her stop the question, and turn around.

There, reading a piece of parchment from the bag was Artos, who was also crying like any man would never admit to himself.

"Don't bother and read it, I'll tell it to you" the skull said, flying straight in front of her, to intercept her from running to Artos' side.

"The princess thought of taking two birds with a stone. Avoid marriage and save her beloved. So guess what she did! The night before she made the execution come faster, to be *done with it* and swapped the two, transforming the girl into Artos with an illusion!" as the skull said that, nearly with glee, Louise paled.

"No…she…" she loved him, not the girl, and she didn't know the girl was his sister.

"Then, she came in the morning, and transformed him into the girl with an illusion again, to bring *her* out! HOW FUN IS THAT!" the skull yelled at her, making her fall down on the ground, which had turned dark, as the time had been passing, with Artos doing nothing but crying.

"The funniest thing of all? His sister thought she was going to be SET FREE. She had hope. Hope is a fickle thing, girl. It is crushed so easily, it so weak, so damn insignificant, that you need not hope, no feelings, no attachments, no emotions, and now LOOK. Look at his determination now" with that said, the skull turned to float next to Louise, and Louise couldn't help but stare at her familiar stand up in silence, after the night.

"If he returns to the wizard's guild, he'll be arrested again. If he goes to town, he'll be arrested again. So, tell me girl, what is it, you think, he will do now?" as the skull asked that, Artos was seen starting to move along the road.

"He…he could change country, right?" Louise asked to the skull, who moved in a *no* floating way.

"Ghorzun is an island, child: enormous, but limited, island. To the far north, the dwarven domains, to the far south, the elven, to the south-east the gnomish, to the north-west the halfs', the wicked dunes of the Bedouins lay in the western area, and the east is all covered in the enormous plain of Terenestia, which owes its fealty to the king of the city from which Artos has just been kicked out. Eventually, he would be found out, and brought to justice, as the united kingdoms of the Bedouins and of Terenestia are more than enough threats" the voice came from the skull, albeit devoid of tongue.

"Would the king really go that far for him? He's already battered, why would he go so far?"

"Prophecies are fickle things. They always come true, wherever you wish for it, or not" the skull replied.

"It was foretold, that had the king taken a lover, said lover would birth twins, of which one would bring forth great prosperity, but the other would crush and destroy everything along its path for power, even the king himself." As he said that, Louise couldn't help but stare at the skull, what was he ranting about? He couldn't…

"No. Oh no. It can't be" she whispered.

"Yes it can. This is something that sickening wrench over there" his jeweled gaze pointed at the figure, "Will learn only in decades; during his maddening quest for power, or better yet, during OUR maddening quest for power." Louise paled, shaking her head even more.

"No…this is…no. Just no. This is too…"

"What? Horrible? Degrading? Dramatic? THIS IS ARTOS BASILEUS SFOR!" with that loud yell, Louise woke up screaming and crying.

***out of the dream***

Kirche had been hugging Louise for half an hour, yet the pink haired girl, devoid of tears, still kept on sobbing. Even Tabitha was staring worriedly at the trembling young girl, who looked even paler than before.

"I feel like puking" she whispered, as Tabitha nodded and went to grab the bucket once more.

"There, there, it's all right Louise, nightmares happen, why don't you tell Kirche what the problem is?" the red head said slowly, holding Louise's hair as the girl actually removed what little she still had in her stomach in the bucket, that Tabitha promptly then went to throw out of the window. After all Albion was floating on the Ocean, the fishes wouldn't mind some vomit.

"What did you dream?" Tabitha whispered, slowly using what little healing magic she knew to try and calm the pink haired girl down.

"A nightmare…you know how…familiar and master can share thoughts telepathically?" she whispered, slowly.

"Yes, what did Darling have you see?" Kirche asked, slightly nervous.

"No, it wasn't Arty himself…it's just that, when I sleep, I dream of his past…and…I need to puke again" Tabitha was swift with the bucket once more, but this time nothing came out, an empty stomach cannot vomit anything.

"Darling's past is that horrible?" Kirche asked, but a stare from Tabitha made her shake her head, "on a second thought, I don't want to know."

Louise stopped shivering after a while, but refused to go to sleep.

"Maybe you should have a talk with Arty, and ask him if there's nothing you both can do to avoid this" Kirche suggested, as she could see the sun rising over the horizon.

Louise herself didn't want to admit it, but the thought had already crossed her mind; she hadn't asked only because she was actually curious about her familiar's past, but now...her interest was fighting against the need to keep her familiar's past his own, and the fact that it could actually become scarier than what she had already seen.

"I don't know…maybe I will Kirche…" she whispered, trying her best not to fall asleep again, the Germanian's embrace was actually warm and motherly, but Louise couldn't actually fall asleep again, no, she wouldn't.

"Why not now?" Tabitha asked.

"He'll probably be…" Louise stopped her sentence mid-way. He did say he didn't sleep much, or he didn't sleep at all, and the sun was rising.

"I'll go look for him" with those words said, she steeled herself, hazily wobbling on her legs out of the room, and back on the upper deck.

Truthfully, Arty was there, standing at the larboard side of the ship, his eyes fixed on the dawning sun, his own familiar, the crow Guendaline, standing on his shoulder, cleaning, like any crow would do, his hair, maybe searching for fleas or more likely doing it as a sign of trust and family. She silently turned her red gaze towards Louise, who was unsure of how to start the conversation.

"Dawn is wonderful, isn't it?" Arty said, without turning around, "just look at the sun rising up, especially above the clouds" as he whispered that, he had that sort of dreamy tone in his voice, that made Louise calm down, he was still Arty, no matter what, he certainly would find a way.

"I…I dreamed of your past again" Louise said, as she got closer, the wind gently making her pink hair blow to the side. Artos turned around slightly worried, looking at her for a moment.

_Told you there was going to be a surprise this morning._

_What did you do?_

_Talked to her, of course!_

…_shouldn't have been surprised. We can be pretty headstrong._

_Scared the hell out of her, just in time._

_What did she dream?_

_Till the point of us crying like babies and then standing up._

_I see…_

"I understand if you no longer wish of me as a familiar" Arty replied, moving closer to the girl, who looked at the face of the gentle man, with the sun rising up behind him, he didn't look at all like an evil man, or a force of destruction.

"Why would I?" she whispered to him, surprised.

"Well, it's because we are linked as mage and familiar, that you are experiencing this. So, you wish to cut the link, right?"

"Isn't there another way?" Louise whimpered, tightening her knuckles, she actually was a bit scared to let Arty go and go back to be the Zero.

"I do not know. I could look for it, but it would take some time…are you sure you wish to continue seeing my past? It is not something I'd share with anyone I like" as he said that, with a small smile, Louise's heart began beating furiously.

"W-Wait. L-like…in what sense…no, because, I'm…Wardes…sure, he's a…but…" as she actually reddened till a ripe tomato, fidgeting with her fingers, she could no longer stare at the man in front of her.

Arty chuckled, moving closer to her and patting her gently on her pink haired head, "Do not worry, child, I did not mean anything strange with that."

Louise still couldn't help but nearly faint, before gasping heavily for air, when Arty actually removed his hand from her head.

"So, what do you wish for?"

Louise thought about it for a moment, before saying:

"You can continue being my familiar, while looking for a way to stop your past from becoming my night dreams…there is something, however, that I want you to promise me" as she said that, she moved closer to him and held him by both the side of his clothing, a simple blue vest that day.

"What is your wish, master?" he replied with a small grin, looking at her face, her green eyes staring at his own.

"You will never again call me master, or call yourself familiar. We are friends now, so call me Louise, and I'll call you Arty!" she replied, blushing furiously, as Arty stood silent for a moment, before erupting in laughter.

_Can I please die of embarrassment right now? Please, a sixteen year old asking to be friends with us? PLEASE!_

_What is wrong with you?  
DEMONS DEVILS AND VAMPIRES can be our friend but sixteen years old? Really? _

_It is a nice change of social circles _

"Fine Louise, so be it" as he said that, he actually lifted her up for a moment, which sent her in an embarrassed and panicked mode, before being deposited once more on the wooden floor of the deck.

"Now, do you want to have breakfast?" as he asked that question, Louise nodded with a smile.

"I actually am a bit hungry…"

"Darling! I want to be your friend too!" yelled a voice which swiftly dashed into Arty's hands, as Kirche smiling tried to tackle him down.

Strangely even Tabitha moved closer, blushing, and grabbing a hold of a piece of Arty's tunic.

"Me too" she whispered.

"Wizard Arty! ME …" as Guiche yelled that, he was actually stopped in mid-air, in which he was since he had decided to jump towards Arty too, by Kirche's open hand, which made him fall down on the wooden deck.

"Can't touch him! I get to…" but obviously, she stopped when she realized she was hugging down Flame.

On the other hand, Tabitha had been kept, and was currently getting a patting on the head from Arty, "Good girl" he said, nodding, as the blue haired child stopped holding his vest, turning red.

One sailor with an outrageous beard watched the scene, and couldn't help but grin.

Everything went by happily, until the captain of the ship sounded the alarm for pirates; from a nearby cloud another ship, without holstering a flag, came straight into view, with its number of cannons, it actually looked like a military ship of some sort.

Wardes had hurriedly gone on the upper deck, but when he tried to wake up his griffon, he realized too late it had been put to sleep.

"They have water mages! They put to sleep the griffon and the dragon!" as he yelled that, Tabitha looked to where she had left Sylphid to nap. She was still napping after all. As the pirates signaled the merchant ship to stop, the captain couldn't but oblige, as Louise was slowly grinning.

"Hey Arty" she whispered to him, who looked back at her with a puzzled look.

"Yes Louise?"

"If you make us invisible, we could launch a surprise attack"

"We could, but that would risk this ship blowing up, and the griffon and the dragon falling down to their doom" as Arty pointed that out, he actually didn't mention how he was reading the thoughts of the pirates, and how they were everything, but actual pirates.

"So what do we do now?" Guiche asked, as Wardes slowly went for his wand.

"Not what the captain is thinking" Arty replied, as he actually waved him to put down the wand.

Wardes looked at him surprised, especially so as Arty began walking towards the pirates, who held their guns against him. He did not stop even as they screamed at him to get back in line.

"We're going to shoot you!" one of them yelled at the mad man, because for him, he could only be a madman, but he didn't stop, so when one tried to grab him, he was violently flung away by a gust of wind.

"Be my shield, Aerus, first born of the Zephyr" Arty whispered, as he kept on moving, a strange wind tornado encircling him, like it were alive, hands moved breaking down the pirates guns one after the other, and then Arty flew on the pirate's ship deck, leaving behind dumbstruck pirates, who still kept pointing their swords at the merchant's crew.

"I would like to talk to your captain" he whispered, being out of ear for the rest of the group, left on the merchant's ship. As one of the pirates, maybe an officer, moved, the other pirates surrounded him, as did the two mages responsible for having previously sent to sleep both Sylphid and Wardes' griffon.

"So, how is it, any recent luck with pillaging?" he asked with a smile, and one of the pirates actually felt the man was worthy of being told a tale or two while they waited.

"Well not much, seeing as…"

"Shut up Johnatan!" another pirate snapper at him.

"You shut up Theron!" the first one, Johnatan, replied.

"So, as I was saying, this cargo of sulfur is the first thing we got our hands on, and it's going to help us a lot in defending Newcastle"

"Oh, really? Newcastle is precisely where I was meant to go, together with the rest of my group" as Arty said that, he smiled, pointing at the ensemble of students and Wardes on the other ship.

Said group of students could barely see Artos talking, and when he pointed at them, they kind of smiled nervously. Their wands had already been confiscated, so all they could do was mutter under their breath.

"Louise, what is your familiar doing?" Wardes whispered.

"I don't know Wardes, I don't know, and you can call him Arty. Not familiar" she replied snapping at him.

"Darling is certainly going to…" Kirche said, but stopped speaking when the pirate captain came out, with a long black beard and a patch over one of his eyes; he seemed a violent swashbuckling type.

On the other hand, Arty simply smiled at the *Captain* who was, by his thoughts, none other than Prince Wales, who spoke first.

"So, what matter has a strange being like you with me?"

_He's not even feigning well, "AHOY Plunder behold! By the seven seas what trickery is this?" That would have been a good way to start._

_He's a crown prince. Worst to worst he doesn't even know he's supposed to kill someone every time he pillages a ship._

_So, do we kill him here?_

_First we have to deliver the letter Artos, you know we must be *sure* everything has been done properly._

"Strange being? Me? Please, and you call that a way to hide your face?"

_Well, he can't compete with our epic spell, *Flip Coin*_

_Yeah, but I mean, the beard is black and his hair is slightly brownish. It's clear he's using a wig!_

"What are you…" the fake pirate captain said, but before he could finish the sentence, the rest of the pirates encircling Arty fired upon the captive.

On the other ship, people stared eyes bulging. Except those who had actually seen Arty's luck. Truth be told, not even had he offered his head would they have managed the feat, but they did earn points for trying though.

As the smoke removed itself, the bullets could be seen at Arty's feet, while he himself was unscathed.

"So, as I was saying, prince, I'd like to talk with you in private. Together with that pink haired girl over there who's an envoy from Tristain. You can accept, or I can force you to accept, and trust me…I can be pretty forceful" as he said that, Arty grinned, and from a sort of nice guy, everyone passed to believe in sheer terror that it was best to obey the will of that evil overlord hiding under angel's wings.

_Diplomacy, intimidate, diplomacy. Always works._

Prince Wales was shocked by the strange red haired man, whose green eyes were seemingly piercing his very own soul, yet he couldn't help but nod at the man's request, and when one of the pirates went to grab Louise, the girl actually dashed next to her familiar, to throw a slap at his face.

"Can't you warn me when you do these things!" she pouted, receiving but a smile in return.

"Now, now, the gentleman here is going to bring us to the Prince" as Arty said that, Louise stared at him in disbelief, but followed him and the pirate captain.

When they entered the Captain's cabin, he actually removed his beard, his wig and his fake eye patch, and at that sight, Louise quickly kneeled.

"Arty! That's the crown prince!" she nervously whispered to her friend, who, however, simply shrugged and crossed his arms, the blond prince could be the crown prince of the realm of the gods, he wouldn't bow the same.

"It's not a problem, he said you're an envoy from Tristain, so do you perhaps bring news from my cousin, Princess Henrietta?" Wales asked with a glint of hope, to which Louise nodded and handed over to him a letter.

_Time stop?_

_I don't like to use ninth-circle spells like those so easily. _

_It wouldn't be bad to know what's written on the letter._

_I can grab it later._

_If you say so_

The prince read the letter with a saddened expression, before folding it, and nodding.

"I understand, however I do not have what the princess asks to be returned with me, it's in Newcastle, for safekeeping" as he said that, he muttered "Would you mind coming with me to get it? Your friends can…"

"No." Arty replied shaking his head.

"Only us two will come to Newcastle" as he said that, his attitude briskly changed from calm and serene to brusque and hardened.

"There is a matter of traitors in the midst, but without proof, it is better not to risk your life, your majesty" Louise quickly explained.

_Hey, I have proof. I read his wicked mind._

"I understand: then what will you tell your friends?" as he asked that, he looked curiously at the two. He had felt some sort of hard gaze on his neck, something like a sixth sense warning him of an impending problem. He had trusted his gut instinct when it told him not to return to Londinium when Cromwell wished to discuss for peace, and he had avoided the fate of his younger brother, killed at the city's gate.

This time again, the gut instinct was telling him that there was going to be trouble ahead. Probably the traitor they were talking about?

"Nothing" Arty replied, shrugging, "By telling them nothing, they can come up with their own answers, and the friends will follow to save, while the traitor will follow to kill" as he said that, he smiled gently, but it looked more like a grin than anything else.

"Good, then what do we do to convince them we aren't actually going with them?" as Louise asked that, Arty replied with a *what do you think?* stare.

"Oh, right, nothing. Say nothing, do nothing" Louise replied.

So they did, finishing the transfer of sulfur, the pirate's ship departed, living the rest of the group uninformed on their whereabouts.

As Sylphid and the griffon awoke, swiftly they both tried to give chase to the pirate ship, who they had seen move towards the general direction under the island.

Problem was: they lost them.

***Meanwhile, in the D&D Verse***

"Are you ready men!" yelled Torderk of clan Ironclaw, as he wielded his dwarven battle axe to give courage to the horde of dwarves behind him.

"FOR MORADIN!" came the cheers from the stocky, covered in steel, dwarves, as they raised their tower shield, and entered formation.

"Not the dwarves again!" pouted the lord of the shadows.

"DWARVES INCOMING!" yelled the ghost of an archer.

"I see them, READY YOURSELVES!" the lord of shadows sighed. He hated dwarves. They all hated dwarves.

"Howlers!" a sort of ghost lieutenant yelled down below on the main street of the city of Necros.

"READY!" came as a set of eerily loud howls.

"Bashers!"

"Clang clang!" came as the reply from the ghosts of ex-warriors, who knew only how to appear to fight, and then de appear.

"Fearers!"

"Ready and scary sir!" yelled a decapitated ghost who kept his head under the arm.

"Let them fear the day they came to Necros, but be nice to them! They might join us later!" the lieutenant yelled, as one ghostly dwarf actually was looking at the living dwarves for his family members.

The living yelled for Moradin once more, and then, they charged, making the ground shake under their movement.

"CHARGE, FOR MORADIN!"

"CHARGE, FOR NECROS!" came the reply, as the ghosts swiftly moved and then, well, they stopped.

They stopped because the dwarves routed in less than five seconds, after entering the main gate.

"Damn it. I hate it when they send wussies to us" the lieutenant muttered.

"Those glyphs of Fear are strong stuff, I understand, but really? Routed? An entire dwarven platoon? Sheesh!" the lord of shadows whispered, sighing.

"Sir, the banshee has killed the mummy lord recently, what do we do? Should we assume control of the area?" as a ghost floated upwards, to where the shadows lord was, he received a reply with the lord's right hand, a firm no.

"Better not now. The vampire Lord is going to have to explain why he went with the crypt touched ghoul to destroy the banshee. I think we might expand more if we just wait the ruler's return"

"Yes my lord"

***Back into Halkeginia***

"Just be done with it, and drink this damn wine kid!" as Arty was being forced by a burly old knight to drink directly from the bottle, after the so called *Last supper* for the defenders, he couldn't help but think about who, between the two, was actually a kid.

"Leave Arty alone!" yelled a drunken voice, which came from Louise, who had actually accepted the challenge of another group of knights to a drinking game, and had obviously won after placing the honor of the la Vallière family on the line. They did actually let her win, because some sort of sixth sense told them that, if she lost, they would probably die excruciating deaths by the hand of the red-haired man with the green glare of death.

"Louise" Arty replied smiling gently, to the red faced girl who seemed badly drunk, "you shouldn't have drunk that much".

"But…but they challenged me!" she pouted, rocking her fists in the air "I couldn't back down on a challenge!"

_Now, when do we strike?_

_I thought tomorrow, after we make sure we got everything we had to._

_No dilly dallying Arty, make me proud of us, or make me angry and get me out._

_Don't worry. I'll do it._

"Some challenges are best not taken, Louise" Arty replied, standing up, casually dropping the empty wine bottle he was asked to drink on the table.

He moved close to the pink haired girl and grabbed her to place her on his shoulder. Then, between wicked comments, and laughter, he excused himself.

Louise was blushing hard as Arty dropped her gently on the bed they had been given for the night they would spend there. She was already stuttering words about having a fiancé or about being young and inexperienced, when Arty sighed, and placed her to sleep with a hand wave.

"Sleep well child, for the night will moan with…"

"_the screams of the dead_" as he said that, he slowly turned around and breathing calmly he muttered:

"By the laws that bind the will of mortal and god alike"

"_By the darkness that engulfs the roaring light"_

"By the searing fire, that heats the coldest night"

"_By the contract made in the depth beneath"_

"By my name I am one" _"By my will I am two"_

"Swap the mind, lest the body rot" _"Change the coin, lest the gods win"_

"_Strike in the chaos" _"Uphold in the law"

"_To Binding rules"_ "We wage our soul"

When he finished, Arty's eyes were flickering like red fiery pits, stretching just so slightly, he dropped Derflinger in the room with Louise, and the he moved outside, closing it behind him with a Hold Portal spell.

Then, he moved conjuring a sword, which floated peacefully next to him, pure pitch black darkness as a blade. The first knight to die had left the dinner room to go to the bathrooms, as he was a bit drunk, he felt nothing but cold, as the blade sank in, tearing his armor apart like it was nothing more than…nothing. It collapsed in dust, together with his armor.

The assembly hall was still loud in cheers, when the doors opened with a blast, a strange thick fog covered the entrance, for a second, the hall was silent. Then, as strange magical missiles threw themselves forward, dashing off to wound the people assembled, screams began. A red sphere dashed to the center, blowing up like a small keg of gunpowder, reducing to charred corpse the bulk of the knight's force. Out of three hundred knights, seventy-five died from that sole Fireball, the remaining were either far on the corners or near the prince, and as everyone raised their wands, soon some strange things dashed off from the fog. Covered in bandages, or stinking like highly rotten corpses, they launched themselves forward as a strange, broody sound began hailing from the depth of the fog. As soon as one yelled "Undead!" the general chaos ensued next, and the Prince was whisked away by faithful guards into the chapel, after all, chapels were known to be effective shields to undead…at least, the general thought was that one, since no one had ever seen before an actual undead rise forward and attack since eras long gone.

The bandaged thing, which was a mummy, for those who actually knew it, used his overwhelming slams to actually bash up a couple of knights, before being roasted by a fire mage, and disappearing into the air. The wounds inflicted on the knights, however, suddenly worsened gravely, as they became pale and gurgling, exhaling their last breaths. A red mist surged from the knight's feet, and suddenly many of them found their wands rotting down to nothing more than a small mass of slimy goo.

"_You are pathetical, to trust onto mortal things" _a deep voice resounded from the middle of the mist, many knights charged with the swords they still held, they soon found themselves taken away from existence, nothing more than dust on the ground, when a floating Sword of darkness slashed at them, not leaving wounds but draining their strength and actually killing the weak.

"_Cull the weak to keep the strong"_ the voice muttered once more, as many knights, too tired to fight, due to the sword, fell on the ground, heavily groaning as sleep embraced them.

"_This is easier than that time with the kobolds" _as the fog moved towards the center of the room, a courageous guard launched himself forward with a spear, just to be grabbed by what looked like a giant hand of pure force, and flung against the wall, the impact breaking his spine and sending him to a merciful death.

The hand then moved forward, striking at a group of mages who were fighting with everything they could get their hands off, to fend the stinking creatures which being ghasts, had already gravely wounded the majority of them, and were now toying with them.

A few mages actually were holding the ground to the chapel, using fire and wind to create a searing wall. A wall which suddenly froze into ice and broke down, when a Polar ray cast from the fog hit the wall, snuffing out the flames and quickly followed by an Orb of Electricity which sent them onto the floor, foaming from their mouths.

"_The strong I will use, the weak I will meld" _as the fog muttered that, it moved forward, towards the chapel, behind him, what had been a happy, cheering, and roaring dining hall was now but a memory of it, with broken things, rotting corpses, and flesh-eaters who gnawed upon the bones of the deceased, before their time came up, and they returned to where they had been summoned, together with those they had newly turned to their cause of undeath.

"_Stand as my minions" _as he said that, the two foaming fallen guards suddenly stood up, and as their eyes turned pitch black, wicked smiles spread across their faces.

"Your orders are our will" was their monotonous reply, as all the person inside the fog did was wave a hand toward the chapel, and the undead obeyed.

Inside the chapel, the few remaining knights, not more than a hundred, stood in shock over what they had seen.

"The Reconquista faction is using undeads! It has allied with the demons" was the common murmur.

"There is no honor in dying to undeads!"

"What about our families? They should have departed tomorrow!"

"Calm down!" the crown prince yelled, standing in front of the Altar of Brimir.

"Everyone, calm down. Whoever is guiding them is coming after us, after me. I will personally move far from the port, and while I do that, you all will move there, and you will be the last line to protect as many civilians as you can. Do you understand!" as he said that, the knights nodded.

At that moment, the door received a series of knocks.

"Who's there?" yelled a knight.

"It's me for Brimir's sake! I'm Theodore! The things have already moved towards the docks! We must hurry!"

"Open the doors! Quick!" yelled the prince, and as they obeyed, *Theodore* rushed him, only, he wasn't Theodore, he was a corpse walking and looking like Theodore, who, after having dashed straight in the midst of knights, exploded, to reveal a Walking cyst, which, spewing gastric acids, began clinging to the closest knights, sending screams of horror around, as another mass of undead suddenly dashed through the door once more, a bundle of skeletons with fierce claws and ghouls risen from the grave.

The knights were quick to raise their wands, throwing air blades, fire balls, earth fists or spears. The corpses however kept piling up for the knights, and as a knight fell, it suddenly jerked back to life as a new undead.

The prince had done his best to raise wind barriers, but as wind seemed to pass through the skeletons without success in inflicting harm to them, the last thing he did, was to resort to prayer.

"Founder Brimir! Help us please! WE are surrounded by unholy spawns from the pits of hell, please, as a descendant of one to whom you granted the ruby of wind, please bring forth…" but he couldn't finish, as the altar cracked open and a dark miasma emerged from it. Bones, like if they were vines, suddenly grew from it, circling around the chapel, aiming at anything which could even vaguely resemble or recall light or god.

It twirled, piercing through the knights who were fighting too close to the undead, it crashed strongly against the ceiling, nearly breaking the roof of the chapel, before coming back down, impaling all that still drew breath. All, but prince Wales, who stood there, pale as he could possibly be, as the mist slowly moved forward, in the middle of the bone trees and bone spears, among the corpses of his dead knights, there, the mist dispersed.

A figure, cloud in an ample mantle, with a horned helmet stood, a necklace made of skulls, an ample and black mantle, flowing from the sides, a scythe on his back, it looked forward, red eyes gazing at the prince.

"_Wales Tudor…" _as he muttered that, he opened his arms, and suddenly, it was like nothing had ever happened. He was there, in an intact chapel, and a marriage was underway. His marriage. He was marrying his cousin, Henrietta, and both of them were happy, yet why did he feel he was forgetting something? Why did he feel something important was going on, somewhere? As the priest asked for his yes, he obviously said so.

"_Kiss the bride"_ and with those words, a sword painlessly decapitated the prince, who had been having the best dream he could possibly have.

_Now we swap again, right Artos?_

_Right. Though this time, please, leave some bones around. I love bones!_

…_just a couple._

_Thanks!_

"Flip Coin!" yelled the cloaked and skull figure, who suddenly found herself, once more, back to the normal Arty, as the undeads disappeared, together with the corpses, which were effortlessly disintegrated. The chapel was repaired, together with any damage in the dining hall.

Arty then returned back to the room where Louise was, and removed the hold portal from the door, opening it, he realized the pink girl was still sleeping, and smiled, moving closer to caress her hair.

_Now she's free from your grasp, isn't she?_

_A deal is a deal._

"Partner…what happened?" Derflinger asked, he had thought he had heard some noises, but wasn't too sure about it.

"Can you keep a secret?" Arty replied back, with a gentle smile.

"You know, I don't want to know" the sword replied, for all he knew it was probably knights getting drunk.

"Smart sword." Arty replied nodding.

***elsewhere in Necros***

"NEW UNDEADS COMING THROUGH!" yelled a voice from the deepest pits of Necros, a long way down, where skeletons and zombies mindlessly dug caves and complexes to house the real heart of the city, which on top only had a vast majority of broken houses or ruins.

A bunch of ghouls, ghasts, and mummies carried zombies, ghosts, or skeletons, one in particular, however, stood up, his head under his arm, his hair blond and ragged and his eyes without will.

"That over there is a death knight to be! Send him up!" yelled someone, and the zombie-Wales mindlessly moved, because before being awakened, he had to be refitted into a more apt form.

"For the glory of the ruler of Necros, all must bow to Artos Basileus Sfor" his head muttered, as it was stitched back into the corpse by a necromancer.

***Back to Halkeginia, second part of Louise's dream***

She was dreaming once more, this time, however, the skull wasn't around. A pity, because she wanted to ask him some more questions. Instead, she found herself walking together with Artos, side by side.

She couldn't help but smile at him.

"Hey, do you think that, one day, I'll be able to walk alongside you? Fellow wizards and all?" she started speaking with glee, while jumping to Artos' sides.

"I mean, when you will teach me, then I'll no longer be the zero. And then we could, you know, go around doing work for her highness. After Wardes is going to be captured, I won't have a fiancé, and if you work hard enough, you could actually get some land or a title from the queen, and then we could…well, if you can convince my parents, that is…but you certainly would manage, wouldn't you?"

She was happy for the fact that, whatever she said, she wouldn't get a reply from him, so she could actually talk how much she wanted, about anything.

"That stupid Kirche isn't maybe all that stupid. Last night she consoled me, you know…it was nice" as Louise whispered that, she realized Artos was still walking, his eyes red.

"You're still sad, right? I mean, that stupid princess could have at least given you something to eat, right?"

Artos actually threw a hand inside the bag, and took out what looked like dried meat, chewing a piece of it.

"Oh, well, you have been without food an entire day" Louise muttered, reddening, really hoping that was just a memory and he couldn't actually hear her.

Noise of horses on the road made Artos throw himself rolling to the side, and staying as low as possible. Two horses ran galloping, maybe couriers, along the road, when they saw the man on the ground, with his ragged clothing; one of the two actually slowed down and came to a halt, while the other kept on moving.

"Hey…mister, you alright?" the voice seemed to come from a boy, maybe a squire to be, since while the other had gone on without a care, this one had stopped.

Artos didn't reply, so the squire, after a moment, decided to move closer.

As it was inches away from his face, Artos casted a spell.

The spell took the upper half of the squire's body, scorching it in flames and sending the rest of his body down limp. Louise couldn't help it, she screamed at the sight of her familiar, having killed a boy, and now rummaging through his possessions.

"WHAT is wrong with you! You killed him! What the hell is wrong…" she muttered, shaking her head. No, this was the past, and after such a traumatic experience maybe he was simply shocked. He'd realize his mistakes with time, right?

The horse meanwhile was still waiting for his squire to come back, so, when Artos actually went to him, in the beginning it went backwards, but was then calmed by the wizards' words.

"Scorch is used for the day" Artos muttered, "Thankfully I learned how to cast some spells without book" as he added that, he sent the horse to a gallop, not before removing all symbols of the squire's house.

As Louise found herself seeing the scenery change abruptly, she realized she was now falling Artos into the back alleys of a city, where, in a rundown shack, he proceeded to cut down his long red hair.

"Why are you…" but she stopped.

Wait. Were those ears?

"Your ears…are you…a half-ELF!" as she yelled that, she looked at Artos covering his remaining hair with black tar, and then muttering a spell, his pointy ears became round.

He took a knife, then, and faced it right in front of his left eyes, as his hand was trembling.

"Hey. No. That's a no. You heard me? STOP IT" as Louise nearly wailed that, she threw herself against that arm; just to find out she had no strength to move it.

"It's enough! I wouldn't recognize you anyway!" as he stopped, however, she took a sigh in relief.

"Can't do it." He muttered, placing the knife back into his bag.

"Sold the horse. Sold useless stuff. Need more money…maybe I could work as an assistant…no, True seeing would rat me out. Need another job…adventurer." As he sighed that, he stood up, and moved with his bag towards the main road of the city.

It looked smaller, more rundown than the previous one, but probably being that a capital and this instead a country town, such difference was to be expected.

"Adventurer? So that profession existed also in your world" Louise muttered, following him.

It didn't take her much to realize that indeed, while being the same name, it was actually a completely different thing. First off, there were guilds. Artos himself entered one, and exited with a sort of wooden tablet, with a fake name written on it, obviously.

"Caspar David Friedrich? Really? It's a horrible name" as she muttered that, she couldn't help but think about what she was going to see now…and that was when she was woken up.

***Out of the dream***

"LOUISE!" Kirche yelled holding the pink haired girl tightly to herself, and hugging her, repeatedly, "WHERE IS DARLING!" she yelled once more.

"Stupid Zerbst. I was sleeping" Louise muttered half asleep, looking with an angry expression at Kirche.

"Castle empty" Tabitha muttered, her staff at the ready, they had actually barged in from the chapel, just to find it empty, as Reconquista was charging through the walls, they had actually made their way till there.

Only Wardes had stayed behind to keep the Reconquista from coming near them.

Guiche was overlooking one side of the corridor that was directly connecting a set of rooms of the fortress, while Tabitha was looking at the other side.

"So, where is my beloved?" as she asked that, Louise shook her head.

"I don't know" she whispered, standing up, memories of the night before were confusing. She touched her inner pocket and thanked Brimir, for the letter was still there.

"We better leave, Sylphid is down below, we just have to find darling" as Kirche said that, Tabitha whispered:

"Guards coming" Louise grabbed her wand, dashing in the corridor, together with Kirche, who raised her wand.

Two guards ran towards them, as Louise felt something surge inside of her, she couldn't help it, she had to cast it.

"GREASE!" she yelled, and suddenly a thick dose of oil appeared, sending the guards falling down from the lack of balance, and when Kirche finished her spells, they screamed as they were burned alive.

"Darling is teaching you magic?" Kirche asked, but Louise shook her head.

"No, they just pop up every now and then this spells, let's get to the chapel, I'm sure Arty will be nearby" unless he found a way to go farther than he normally would.

The castle was indeed deserted, except the noise of the Reconquista soldiers breaking down doors, and the few stragglers they met of the Reconquista, which were dealt with swiftly by Tabitha and Kirche, however. Wardes however seemed nowhere to be found, until they reached the chapel, where Wardes indeed was, in front of the hole which would bring them to Sylphid, and to safety.

Yet he raised his wand, and an air hammer threw the group of students against the wall.

"Wardes!" Louise yelled, "what are you doing?"

"Killing the Tristain envoy" he replied, "I would have found a way to marry you and grab your power for me, but it seemed you have changed and become a hassle…do not hate me for this, Louise!" as he said that, he charged straight through, tackling Tabitha and engaging her, while in the meantime using his magic to hold his ground against Kirche and Guiche, fighting kids was easy for the commander of the griffon guards, they had nowhere his willpower, nor his stamina.

Only the blue haired girl seemed to be a fight, and Louise simply stood there, not knowing what to do.

She held her wand tightly, thinking, praying and muttering to herself:

"Please, anything, Arty if you're there come out, Arty" as she whispered that, suddenly she realized inside of her a chant, for a spell, a long chant, for a powerful spell.

She began chanting it, forgetting all of her surroundings, every single thing seemed fickle, compared to that spell.

When she actually finished it, the spell created a tiny ball of light, which expanded, greatly, until it became a wide area, engulfing Wardes, and just barely avoiding Tabitha, who felt someone grabbing her by the neck and throwing her backwards.

The next moment, an explosion ensued.

Of the benches, of half the chapel's walls, nothing remained.

Arty however did appear, being the one who was actually holding Tabitha tightly, he had been invisible till then, probably waiting for a chance to strike at Wardes.

Probably.

The truth was another, but he would die rather than admit it.

"Can let go" Tabitha whispered, a bit red, as Arty was indeed hugging her.

"Sorry." He whispered, letting her go.

"We should leave, before the Reconquista arrives here because of the noise" Guiche suggested, standing back up after having been badly bruised by some of Wardes' spells.

Louise outright fainted for the use of willpower.

***Louise's dream***

"We should stop meeting like this" the skull muttered, floating straight in front of Louise, who stared at him, right now they were in some sort of undefined grey haze.

"Anyway, I thought it would be nice to make a final chat, you and I" as he said that, he moved close to Louise's face, who stared at him surprised.

"I'm now going to give you a choice: the idiot doesn't want you to know his past. He wants you not to query it, or ask it, or even think about it. I found a way, but it comes at a price: you won't be able to cast anymore spells of his magic school. Never. Or I can actually tell him I did it, while in truth I did not. You will continue to see his past, all of it, till where he actually reaches the present. When that happens, the dreams will stop, but if you do tell him about this, then I'll have no choice but obey him, right now, per Binding Rules Agreement, you are offered the choice about your life. Choose."

Louise stopped for a moment, only a single moment, to think about it. New type of magic, no longer the Zero, her familiar's past revealed, albeit a lot grim, or again, back to the Zero, without ever knowing why her familiar had a sad expression on his face. More than her familiar, however, it was her friend.

Seriously, what was she expected to choose?

"I want to keep dreaming of his past" and as she said that, she was suddenly awake once more.

***On Sylphid's back***

Arty was holding her tightly, as they were on Sylphid's back, flying back home towards Tristain.

As he was holding her with a smile on his lips, she decided she wouldn't ask him where had had gone, or if he knew anything about the disappearance of Prince Wales and the rest of his loyalist, or about him actually being a half-elf: it didn't matter right there, right then. She simply cuddled against his chest, feeling his warmth and his heart beat a happy tune, and stood there, resting her eyes, at peace.

"I could teleport us to La Rochelle directly, you know?" he asked out loud, but Tabitha muttered something about:

"Sylphid likes to fly"

And everyone stood silent, watching how a new dawn, once more, broke in.

**Author's notes:**

**Wands are made of wood. Without wands mages are weaponless. Guess what spell can make things rot into slime? Hint: Spell Compendium.**

**Another thing: Dimensional Traslation does not work to send Arty back to his plane to get more troops, (or viceversa) because *someone* changed the way Summonings worked. A thing which Artos realized when conjuring the griffon, and that he abused with the undeads who could then convert to undeath other who died by their hands (and who, being thus *summoned* actually followed those rules) and then, they all went happily back to Necros! Necros, welcoming immigrants since its foundation!**

**blinded in a bolthole: Artos and harems? Him? Nahhhh. Though seriously, that's more of a Vampire thing, a lich has no needs for harems, nor does a Demilich. How would it…no, well, don't want to think about it. He had a fling or two with a god though, which left him mentally scarred, as a lich. Hope you liked Artos' *Screen time* (it was actually coming around, I did warn about it in the previous chapters) and no, Orochimaru's way would have been too cliché. I must say, however that skulls can grin even more. No matter what, a Demilich can always make a wider grin. Even if he can't physically, he simply can. Laws of awesome. Or of Poetical License. **

**Genobeast: Yup, and now she's also got Grease to the list. She's more going to be a sorcerer, being a sort of direct connection between dimensions than an actual studious wizard thing.**

**Daggerdoom: Thanks! I hope I do manage to keep you, and all the readers, entertained till the end!**

**Small note:**

**They actually DO keep getting bigger and bigger my updates. D: how's that even possible!**


	7. Chapter 7: The Hidden Façade

**Sad chapter ahead, Readers be warned!**

Chapter seven

As Sylphid flew back, towards Tristain, something, in the crumbled ruins of the chapel of Newcastle, moved. It found himself near a lot of lives, but while he did hate them, he couldn't crush them all now. He had to hide, in the depth of the caverns that riddled the flying continent. He was so hungry for life, life which had been removed from, and which he had no longer. His clothing, charred and broken, meant nothing to him now, as his body creaked under the strength of strange energies, which made him stronger, but at the same time, made it difficult for him to think. He started digging with his fingers, until they became wicked claws, hardened by the bones themselves. As he finally dug his way till the outer walls, he emerged in the night sky, and began a mad dash for the place which he could actually call home: The cemetery. He had tried to use the pigeon feather to become invisible, but instead he had been tarnished by strange energies, and when Arty had appeared in front of him, he had bowed to his will, to his enormous will. The following fight had been a ruse made of illusions, and finally, he had been set free from his will. He had touched for a second the power of the Wizard, and then he had been removed from it, free to hate, free to eat, free to kill and butcher.

As the now dead ghoul Wardes moved in the night, he could feel life calling at him; life that singed songs horrible to hear for his ears.

***Arriving in Tristain***

Sylphid actually arrived in Tristain over the course of a single day, not needing to actually rest. Tabitha too was surprised by her display of prowess, a display which the dragon itself, albeit not voicing out loud, found strange too.

Arty was the only one who knew exactly what he had cast on the dragon, but since nobody asked, he didn't answer, this also proved to him one thing: the dragons here weren't spell resistant, and furthermore, seemed to have less than average intelligence.

As they landed in the garden of what looked like the palace of Tristain, Arty couldn't help but smirk, as the last palace he had ever entered had been demolished to the ground by one of his summoned elementals, and yet here he was, well, he kind of hoped Henrietta didn't prove to be a tyrant.

As the group of students was encircled by mages, their wands ready, Louise yelled:

"We are the special envoys of her Highness, Princess Henrietta!"

"I say you need to drop down your wands and be arrested! There's a no-fly zone near the palace, and especially IN the palace's gardens!" yelled back the captain of the mage's squad.

Louise bit her lip, clenching her fists, "Arty! Do something!" she pouted at the wizard, who looked back at her.

"Me? Why? They're doing their job, and truthfully, we could have landed outside the city and then make our way here by foot, this gentleman here is perfectly entitled to his suspicions" as he said that with a small gentle smile, the captain of the Manticore guards was actually softened.

"But it's important we speak with the princess!" Louise muttered back.

"Fine; wait here a minute then and I'll go ask, who should I announce?" the captain of the Manticore guards queried, deciding that it wouldn't hurt to actually ask.

"Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière" Louise replied, seriously, but as the man also turned towards the other red-haired person, who seemed the most gentle and charismatic person ever seen before by his eyes, Arty himself shook his head.

"My name is Arty"

_What? No long introduction with fear aura? I'll do it in my head then: "HEY WHELP; I am Artos Basileus Sfor, Ruler of the city of Necros, destroyer of good, reaper of souls, to my will mortals bow, to my power mountains fall, pray me like a god, or die like the flea you are"_

_I don't recall it was that melodramatic._

_What? I actually change it every now and then._

The captain of the guard nodded and was about to leave, when the princess herself came running towards the group.

_Look at her running, all one would need is a well-placed arrow, straight in the heart, are they lacking in assassins here?_

_Not everyone wishes to kill their rulers._

_We did more than that: we killed the rulers and the rulers' subjects._

"Louise Françoise!" the princess exclaimed, having the captain of the guard leave them alone, "Please, come with me and report what happened" as she said that hurriedly, she still managed to have Guiche, Kirche and Tabitha stay in another room of the palace, while only Louise and Arty actually got to her private rooms.

Louise began narrating, strangely avoiding to depict the actual power of Arty, and more actually keeping a vast amount of information secret, she also avoided to mention Fouquet's demise, stating simply that Arty had taken care of her permanently, and then, as she reached the point of Wales, she stopped.

"Louise Françoise? What of the prince?" Henrietta asked; her eyes filled with worry.

"I don't know your highness, after they offered us rest for a night to me and Arty, the next morning they were all gone. All the loyalists, together with the ship for the civilians, we did not stop to La Rochelle on the way back, but maybe…"

"I'll go check" as Arty said that, he suddenly disappeared from the room.

Henrietta stared, surprised, at the spot where Louise's familiar had been before.

"Louise Françoise…did your familiar just say he would go and check La Rochelle?" Henrietta queried, "Isn't it a long way from here by foot?"

"Well, your highness, he did cover the distance of hours of travels from the Academy to town in less than a blink, so…" as Louise said that, Arty actually returned:

"Nope, no ships at the port of La Rochelle from Albion, I double checked just to be sure" as Arty said that, Henrietta gasped.

"Mr. Familiar! You're jesting! You can't have possibly covered that distance in such a short amount of time…" however, as Arty stared at her seriously, she blinked twice.

"What magic is this?" she whispered, to which the Wizard replied with a smile;

"It's Teleport. I can actually travel anywhere I have but seen once before, and as long as I get my sight on a scene, be it a picture, of something similar, I can actually reach that location, as long as it stands in the same plane of existence."

"Plane?" as Henrietta asked that, Louise paled and Arty smiled.

"Arty, no need to start exp…" Louise tried, but it was too late, as Arty, putting on his professor-like attitude, was already starting to explain the great wheel, once more.

"I understand Mr. Familiar, but please, I still need to know what happened after you both woke up" as Henrietta said that, Arty put on the saddest face ever, just as he was about to reach talking about the Fire plane!

"Your highness, when I woke up, Arty wasn't there, but we escaped the castle from the chapel, being chased by Reconquista's soldiers. All the way till there we didn't meet a single soul loyal to prince Wales, I'm afraid, and even Wardes tried to stop us, revealing himself for what he was: a traitor for the Reconquista" as Louise finished talking, she looked at her hands, she certainly had failed the queen, but she did get the letter back.

"But then Louise here actually blew away him and half the chapel" Arty added, "though she did faint afterwards, I suppose that the use of a Void Spell is especially taxing on willpower" he said that casually, so casually that for a moment neither Louise nor Henrietta bothered much more with his words.

The next ten seconds were an interesting show of their faces suddenly lighting up, and then becoming a conjoint expression of surprise.

"WHAT?" they actually both nearly yelled that at the same time, much to the dismay of Arty's eardrums, which had kind of hoped for a meeker response.

"I said Void element. Her explosion was not a fire ball of your fire element, and certainly it wasn't wind, earth or water. So it was void. Why the surprised face?" as he asked that, he raised his left hand, "You didn't know that these are Gandalfr's runes?"

"Gandalfr? The legendary familiar of founder Brimir? Oh my…I need to sit down a moment" as Henrietta slowly sat down, the door rushed open and a couple of Manticore guards entered, followed by who Arty knew was Cardinal Mazarin.

"Your highness, what's going on? We heard you scream" as the Cardinal asked that, the two guards had already raised their wands.

"Nothing Cardinal, I was just surprised by some…statement, my friend's familiar said. There is no need for you to worry. I am among friends right now…I must ask however; what where you doing by my door, Cardinal?" as Henrietta quickly recomposed herself, putting up the façade that many rulers learned to use, (except Artos, because I challenge you to see emotions on a skull's face, except grinning, that is), she sternly looked at the Cardinal, who, politely, backpedaled with the guards back to the room's entrance.

"I was meaning to talk with your Highness about the recent political changes; and the fact that Albion's rebels have sent messages of peace towards all countries"

"I see, we will speak more about this later, however" Henrietta replied, and the Cardinal, bowing once more, excused himself with the guards.

_Well, for a nice change this regent seems loyal to the kingdom._

_So it seems._

"The Void? The legendary power? Mr. Familiar…"

"Arty." The Wizard replied, "Call me Arty" as he said that, he slightly snapped, but only so slightly that only Louise seemed to have realized, Henrietta corrected herself slightly reddening, and continued:

"Arty, are you sure about this; the power of the founder himself inside my precious friend Louise Françoise?"

"I have not lived long to be wrong on trifle things" Arty replied smiling warmly, to which Henrietta, puzzled, stared at Louise.

"He says he's lost count of his age…he might be a hundred years old" Louise suspected that age, more because she had seen him as a child in her dreams, and he hadn't changed much, and because, if elves were long lived, she supposed half-elves to be the same.

_She's wrong by at least Six-hundred years._

_We're older than the oldest of elves._

_Now, now, I'm sure some grumpy old druid would prove us wrong._

_If we ever meet a grumpy old druid, keep the withering spell ready._

_Right-o._

"Such age must certainly come with great wisdom" Henrietta muttered, staring at Arty with the same look a three year old would have staring at a candy offered by his father.

Arty chuckled at the remark, "Wisdom is trifle, if you do not have the knowledge to use it well; but we were not discussing about my age, or how many candles to light on my birthday cake. We were talking about the void, right?"

Henrietta nodded, while Louise had simply kept silent till then. She was a void mage? All those years of failure was because she was a void mage? She was legendary! What if she wrote a letter to Cattleya, her elder sister, and told her? Maybe mother would finally stop comparing her to them. Maybe she'd even praise her? Would such a feat be possible?

"So, how does void work?" Louise actually reddened in embarrassment as she was the one to ask that question, to Arty, who, in truth, simply smiled back to her.

"Not a clue…" he said, before erupting into such a cute laughter that for a moment both Henrietta and Louise's faces became slightly blushing.

"So…the marriage with the Germanian Emperor Albrecht is now safe" Henrietta whispered, grabbing the letter which had been taken from Louise's hands, the one given to Louise by Wales himself.

"You should destroy the letter" Arty said, nodding, "And if Wales actually is on the ship coming back, you should have him delivered to Reconquista" as he said those words, Henrietta stared at him in shock, together with Louise.

"Wales is…my cousin! I would never deliver him to rebels!" Henrietta exclaimed shocked by the sudden change of Arty's character.

"Arty! Apologize to the princess! I beg your pardon your majesty, he just tends to speak his mind most of the time" Louise hurriedly begged, kneeling down, "You kneel down too and apologize" she muttered to him, but when she saw his eyes...she stopped, mouth agape. They were furious. Anger wasn't the correct identification of the emotion swirling inside of Arty's eyes, for Anger would have been too weak a definition for what was shown on the Wizards' face.

To call it anger would be to reduce greatly its actual strength, it was worse than anger, it was on the same level of the furious berserker fury, when he also rages to top it all off.

"I offered a suggestion to help a self-conceited child, lost in fantastic romances which have no hope of becoming real, and can instead backfire horribly. I will not bow, and certainly not KNEEL to anyone who does not prove to be greater than me. At the present, no such individual exists on this plane. Do not test my patience Louise, for some things, I do not forgive." As he muttered every single one of those words, the air around him actually sparked with electricity. Henrietta moved her hand towards he wand, which was actually a scepter, and raised it straight in front of her, aiming at Arty.

"I could show you the magic of royalty, familiar, but then I'd…" and then, Henrietta suddenly lost her voice.

She tried to speak, but couldn't. Tried to chant, but couldn't. Arty, instead, stared at her with a bemused expression.

"You're magic is weak. Without words, you cannot cast. Without wands, you cannot cast. I do not need words or wands, to cast my own magic. So, Princess, if you actually wish to see wherever or not your *royalty magic* is stronger than mine, please, do so while being suitably prepared for the consequences." Then Arty turned to leave, but Louise suddenly stood up, barring his path.

"Arty! I don't know what's taking you right now, but give back the voice to her Majesty!"

"Her voice will return in half an hour. That is all. I will await you back at the academy." That said, he actually disappeared from sight.

Louise stared at Henrietta, who had in the meantime gone on her knees, trying to utter words, but couldn't, so she was actually becoming red from the effort. The pink-haired girl moved closer, apologizing repeatedly with a worried expression, and then waited for the princess to actually gain back her words.

In the silence that lasted for half an hour, Henrietta stared at her hands, at Louise, at the letters recovered from Wales, at the fire that crackled in her room, then, as she stood up, she threw the letters into the fire pit, tears running down her cheeks.

"…sorry" was all she muttered to the chimney.

"Louise Françoise…I grant you the title of Chevalier for services given to the crown of Tristain… and please, take this" as she said that, the princess Henrietta handed over to Louise a white book, "It's the Founder's prayers book: it's completely blank, but I would like it if you were to use it to write a poem for my incoming marriage"

"It would be an honor, your majesty" as Louise knelt once more, receiving the book, she was also granted the parchment for the chevalier title.

"Louise Françoise, my dear friend, please…be wary of your familiar, he has to be hiding something" as she said that, she looked worried for her friend, but Louise shook her head.

"Your Majesty, he has…reasons, why he does not wish to kneel anymore…I do not know wherever I should speak about it, but he knelt too many times to a king he served, and all he earned from it was despair. Maybe he just needs to know more about your majesty kindness."

"Louise Françoise…just be careful," as Henrietta said that, she grabbed hold of Louise's hands, bringing her back up from her kneeling position once more, "You are one of the few I can call friend, please, promise be you will be careful."

"I promise, Henrietta" and with those words, Louise was finally given permission to leave.

As she left, towards Sylphid, a thought dawned in her mind. The academy was a bit far from Tristania, the capital. Didn't her familiar say…she began running to Tabitha, they had to hurry.

***Somewhere, in another plane***

"What's this? You said that, by now, he should have already conquered half the continent!" someone snapped to another.

"He must have realized it, sadly" another voice said.

"I told you lot we should have gone there with our muscles!" yelled a burly voice.

"OH shut up you muscle freak! Steel was never forged in a day!" repeated another voice, deep.

"I say this bet is going to be our ruin" a female voice, for once, spoke.

"We just have brought unbalance to a balanced world, why did I think it would be wise?" an elderly voice so spoke.

"We should just bring him back to where he belongs, and be done with it" another voice, more harsh, snapped.

"We should send our champions"

"No! It could escalate things!"

"What about the other side?"

"I don't know"

***the other side, in another plane***

"MORE BLOOD FOR THE LOVE OF ME!" yelled a sort of mad freaking voice.

"A tyrant will soon be born, huh? All I saw was him doing a bit of cleaning, not even worthy of the name *tyrant*"

"I told you we shouldn't have let him go. He's going to be dangerous"

"Oh shut up, he burns down a couple of your churches and now he's a danger? To who?"

"Me think me need Kobolds!"

"Why was he invited anyway?"

"Shut up! It's the staff of MY priestess the man has, and we needed more votes for choosing him"

"The other choice would have been my Champion!"

"Shut up Gruumsh, your champion would have probably died because of some petty trick"

"Shut up, all of you! This is getting interesting! If he does what I think he does…" the voice came from a female high-pitched voice.

"Secrets are mine, not yours!" a voice whispered…

***somewhere else, entirely***

"I've got a feeling someone is keeping us out on something big" the voice was a bit clunky as it turned its wheels, and its mechanisms.

"Must be paranoia, pass me that book would you?" the question seemed to be asked by an old, but gentle voice.

"Yeah, I've had that feeling too" a cheerful voice said, as the book swiftly passed exploded in glitter.

"Oh come on, stop being such a kid Garl!" a motherly voice muttered, as the glitter reformed into the book.

"Yondalla my dearest, don't you think something strange is going on?"

"Paranoia I said" Boccob muttered, his eyes set on the book "Damn it! Now I have to terminate the mutant-communists!"

"The contract is being called" Mechanus muttered in his clunky voice, "What is the undying doing?"

"The most apt question would be…where the undying is doing something?" the voice came from a smirking man with a mask on his face.

***Back to Halkeginia***

Arty had the feeling something was wrong. He could feel it inside his chest, his heart was beating heavily. It wasn't normal. It never was.

_We might have a problem staying this far from the girl._

_Damn my arrogance. I teleported without thinking._

_Told you so, Feelings made you weak, and they made you slip._

_It hurts so much. Why the pain!_

He couldn't help but clench his fists, as he crawled his way to the side of Louise's bed. The pain was unbearable, it was like searing flames running around his entrails, like his guts were being ripped out and reformed.

_No arcane magic, I can't help you like this. Though you know, I had kind of hoped we would have died fighting gods, or against a horde of clerics, not like this, biting a sheet from a bed, in a sixteen years old room, because we teleported due to our emotions._

_It hurts. It hurts like it never hurt before._

_Oh you whiny thing. It's just your entire essence being sucked away. Thankfully I don't feel pain. Sad eh?_

_I can't take it anymore._

_Stop your whining: you're a Demilich, find a solution._

"Need arcane energies…could…" as he whispered that, he looked at the set of rings on his hands.

_No. No! Don't you dare. __NO!_

Artos could but stare as Arty actually grabbed the ring of sustenance, and brought it to his mouth, with a strong gulp, he suddenly ate it. A strange sensation soon took over his body, as he could feel ease coming through.

"Now…I'll take a nap" he whispered, as he closed his eyes, to fall asleep.

_Did we just feed on a ring of sustenance? Do you know how much you were going to need it? Now I'll have to sit through you EATING and DRINKING and if I was bored with you sleeping four hours, what about now that they just doubled! You're making another ring, next thing tomorrow, got it?_

…

_Oh right, sleeping. Darn it!_

The door of Louise's room opened with a loud crash, as the pink-haired girl dashed in quickly, to move to the side of her sleeping friend.

She sighed in relief as he was still breathing; yet she couldn't help but wonder why it seemed so strange to her to see him sleep. She realized that at the moment, she had never seen his sleeping face. It was defenseless, laying there his back on the side of her bed, his red hair at the side of his face, and asleep. He seemed to have gone through pain, as there was still sweat on his forehead, but now he was more calm, his breathing stable.

She muttered something under her breath:

"If you do something like this again, forget the princess' magic, I'm going to make you taste my void one." And then, she pulled him on the bed, because she couldn't let her familiar sleep on the floor, obviously. Since she too was tired from the adventure towards Albion, and the quick run back in the academy, she decided that it wouldn't matter if she were to sleep too, and as such, she cuddled to his side, falling asleep.

***Louise's dream***

She had fallen asleep to the sound of a heart beating. Looking around she could see the place they were was damp, and slightly dark, if not for a torch illuminating their surroundings.

"I have to ask, are you sure it's the right way?" the voice came from an Halfling, wearing a leather armor, a knife nervously in his hand while in the other he held what looked like a toy shield. If it weren't for the fact that Louise knew the thing was an adult, she'd question why a child would go play hero in this Brimir-forgotten place. The torch light shone for a bit, illuminating what seemed to be walls near them, a corridor. It was a dark corridor, with at the side of the walls unlit torches, not useable, because of age probably.

An ancient ruin? Artos was the one wielding the torch, as the stocky bearded dwarf at the head of the group, wielding a metal half-plate and a metal shield, coupled with what looked like a keen axe, muttered something in a strange language.

"He says that if you don't keep quiet he's going to leave us here" Artos muttered back.

"Damn, he could speak common" the Halfling replied.

"Come on Zick, be quiet" whispered a female voice behind them, Louise stared in awe at what seemed to be the most busty blonde ever seen. Even though she wore what looked like plate mail, either by joke or by need the place for her rack had been adequately forged. She held a mace in one hand, and a wooden shield in the other.

"Fine Lyanna, but just because you asked" Zick muttered. Artos moved forward grabbing the dwarf by the hair and muttering something in Dwarven.

The dwarf sighed, as the Halfling was gestured to move forward. Louise looked with surprise as the small thing leaped across the walls, searching and carefully pressing holes too small to notice on the floor, and as traps sprung, he artfully dodged them all.

"Wow…friends of yours?" Louise muttered. Before staring in surprise how Lyanna had moved slowly closer to Artos, and had whispered something in his ear, making him turn slightly crimson.

"Later" he muttered as a reply. Louise's female sense turned on, as she narrowed her eyes.

The group moved forward, until it reached a more ample room, filled to the brim with gold and diamonds and jewels. The Halfling eyes stared at the stuff with glee, but Artos harshly yelled:

"NO TOUCHING! It's a trap. I'm detecting big amounts of Evocation magic around here. Zick, look for traps! Torderk, keep your shield up! Lyanna, be careful on our back, I'm thinking some sort of summoned monster is about to barge in" as he gave orders quickly and efficiently, Louise couldn't help but think that he had to be the leader of the group.

Truthfully, much of the gold was just a cover, laid atop a set of clothing which hid underneath glyphs that, once broken by Artos, clearly showed that they were meant to conjure monsters.

They did however manage to grab some money from what Louise had come to understand from their chitchat, was an old abandoned vault of some dwarven long dead clan.

"So Torderk, all clear now right? Our pay?" as Artos said that, the dwarf nodded, and handed over to them a small pouch, which Artos swiftly opened, and counted the gems inside. Louise stared at the small treasure in their hands, it was far more than what was scattered around.

"It's been a pleasure working with you" as he said that, they left the dwarf there.

Louise followed them, as they made their way upstairs.

"I love this type of job chief! Easy work, cleaning up a vault for someone else's clan to use, do you think he gained something from it?" as the Halfling said that, Artos sighed, before muttering:

"Obviously, he's a dwarf. He was more interested in the walls than in the vault per se, there has to be a gold mine somewhere, and that can make him richer. Furthermore by the laws of the dwarven domains, if you clean a vault of a forgotten and lost clan you can keep it for your own, and that *is* cheaper than buying the rights to dig for gold"

"The pay was good however, and once we share it, we could finally start that talk once more, right Friedrich?" the way Lyanna talked to Artos made Louise's vein on the forehead pulse, while the Halfling, instead, chuckled.

"Boss, I'm thinking you're in for a lot of pain. Marrying a servant of Heironeus isn't something you can run away from."

Lyanna did stare badly at the Halfling for a second, but then smiled and chuckled herself:

"Well, it's not my fault he looked so adorably weak the first time I set my eyes on him. Sure, I had to do the entire courting thing, and he was a hard stone to crack, but I did manage to break through…at least to talk about it in something that wasn't scorn" as the woman replied that, she quickly gave a kiss to Artos on the cheek and, while the wizard growled slightly, for the rest he said nothing.

"So, what about the princess huh? You forgot about her, used a fake name and lived a fake life till the end?" Louise asked to Artos, who still wasn't talking much, at least, not until they reached the exit of the vault, which gave on the side of a mountain. That was when a hail of arrows was shot forward, hitting Zick and Lyanna at the same time, but leaving Artos unscathed; a group of black leather dressed persons moved forward, and began speaking to Artos, ignoring the mortally wounded two at their backs.

"Artos! Help them! …Artos?" Louise stared shocked at the sight of her familiar not caring in the slightest, as money swapped places, and his familiar, Guendaline, flew down to Artos' shoulder, then Artos simply disappeared, and Louise's last sight was of the Lyanna yelling her revenge to Artos.

When Louise saw the scenery change, it was at a jewel shop, where the jewels were cashed for gold, and then Artos excused himself.

"You left them to die" Louise muttered, following Artos, "Why would you do that?" she questioned, as he turned into the back alleys.

"Why would you betray them?" she yelled once more, but as he took another turn, she found herself in front of a rundown mansion, where Artos entered, opening the rusted gate, and closing it behind him.

Howls were heard inside, but Artos didn't seem to be the slightest scared, as he opened the wooden door with a big copper key, was that his house?

Louise was trembling, but followed him, knowing that, in either case, she would have to stick with him.

"You took your time master!" yelled a boyish voice, as from the stairs came running down a boy, not more that thirteen.

"I had to convince the dwarf to make a worthy price, Gustaf, and you should know how dwarves are inherently resistant to magical effects. How are the plants growing along?" Artos replied, moving to the kitchen, or what looked like that, without stopping. The *kitchen* was actually nothing more than a table, a couple of chairs, a set of drawers half destroyed by age, and a sink, which simply seemed to drop straight down into a black hole of sorts.

"The shrieker fungus is ready and already doing its job, sir. Some neighbors have already sold their houses because of the ghosts"

"Good; the two zombies?"

"Working on the underground shaft sir: soon they should connect to the cemetery"

"Well done, Gustaf" as Artos said that, he threw at him a golden coin, "Take the coin and go have fun…but no drinking, you know the drill"

"Yes sir!" as the boy said that, he ran outside.

Louise had stared at that exchange of words with interest, understanding little if not that there were two *Zombies* digging underground, a slang for workers?

Artos slouched on a wooden chair, grabbing from a bag a half-rotten apple, and then eating it, with no concerns for the state of the apple.

"You did a good job" a voice whispered from the kitchen's window.

"I never fail do I?" Artos replied back.

"No, to think they asked me to kill you, if your reports on the gold mine turned out fake" as the voice said that, the window opened, and what looked like a gnome, albeit dressed in black, moved forward silently, bag in hand.

Louise stared. She stared as the gnome took out a small, round and red sphere.

"With this you should be able to make your way in. Though if you do, it's going to be a pity no longer working with you" as the gnome said that, turning to leave, he added one final thing:

"Strike fast, Destroyer of Good"

At that moment, Louise awoke.

***out of Louise's dream***

Louise slowly opened her eyes, realizing that she had actually encircled with her arms the sleeping form of Arty. She reddened, pushing backwards and standing up in surprise. She looked at the sleeping figure of the man, he was no saint, that much she had already thought, but he had sold people who actually trusted him, for what then? Why had he been nicknamed *Destroyer of Good*? She had yet to see when the princess actually gave him back the handkerchief, so maybe he had a slow descent into darkness, but was pulled out, right? All she had to do was keep dreaming and finally find out the truth.

The point was how much time was passing in Arty's past, what year was it? How much did it pass? Was the princess already married? Was she a queen? What was the red sphere? She had so many questions, but she had to act like she was no longer having those dreams: that was the deal with the skull.

She stared at his sleeping face, and touched the side of his ears, true, they were round and they even felt round. Yet she had seen them pointy, before magic transformed them. The Princess Henrietta's words were still hammering in her head, however, as she stood up to wash her face.

She looked at herself in the mirror, and for a brief instant, she saw her eyes of a slight grey tint, but just for a moment, as when she rubbed them again, they were back to their usual green color.

She realized it then, by going for breakfast, that the summer vacations had started, as there were far less people in the hall. As she sat eating, she thought about how she would have to learn Arty's magic alone. _Except the basics, the rest is self-discovery and writing them down, right? So I should just take an empty book like the founder's prayer book, and start writing on it… _

As she thought that, she actually opened the book, on which she should have started writing the poem for the princess' marriage. The pages were all blank, and as she looked through each of them, she suddenly felt pulled to close it, and couldn't muster to write on it at all.

"Can't do it" she muttered, alone, she had no idea where to start, or how to do it.

"Can't do what?" a familiar male voice asked from her back. Arty sat next to her, actually with food in his hands right now, munching it down.

"N-nothing!" Louise muttered, turning to face him surprised, especially so because he was actually eating crepes, and not the usual food of the school's canteen.

"Didn't you say you had no need to eat?" as she asked that, she kind of wondered just where he went to take those crepes, they even seemed freshly baked.

"Had to eat the ring of sustenance for its arcane energy or I'd probably be dead by now" as he said that with relative ease, Louise simply stared at him, raising an eyebrow.

"What?"

"I said…" as Arty started once more, he was however cut short.

"I understood that. Why?"

"Well, it was either that, or any other of my magical items which, trust me, are far more worthy to be kept than a ring of sustenance."

_Which to me was pretty useless, and now we are resorting to eating tasteless food for a body which is alive only half the time, wasting time._

_Sucks to be you it seems._

…_Touché._

"I see…when are you going to teach me magic? The summer break has just started." as she asked that she knew already his answer, but still, she wanted to be sure.

Arty looked at her with a saddened expression, and then muttered:

"I'm sorry…but to stop you from seeing my past I actually had to reroute the connection you had to the negative plane of energy, so…you will never be able to use my system of magic."

_Now look at my actress show_ as Louise thought that, she actually started hitting Arty while sobbing and crying. The few remaining students in the hall watched the show slightly amused, but said nothing more than a couple of mutters.

Arty did take all the hits, and excused himself again, and again. In the end, he promised her that he would actually help her out with the Void magic, in some way.

_Told you I did an excellent work._

_I'm still not convinced: she never used to think about ponies and stars._

_What? All girls think about ponies and stars and unicorns!_

_I'm keeping an eye out never the less._

_I find your lack of faith disturbing._

"Sniff…" Louise faked another sob, before dashing off towards her room; she had done her best to suppress the giggles or the laughs for conning the Wizard, but was at her wits end.

Arty instead, who had remained there to finish the crepes, now cold, found being addressed:

"Excuse me Arty…what are your plans for the summer?" the one to ask the question turned out to be the maid, Siesta. She held the empty platter with both her hands, in a strange way to make her rack result *exalted* by said motion.

"I was planning on doing little to nothing actually"

_Building a set of contingency circles to conjure our armies in a split second is *not* doing little to nothing._

_I wasn't planning on doing that!  
I WAS! _

"Then…would you like to come see the Dragon's raiment, in Tarbes? It's my hometown, and if you wish, Miss Vallière can come too." as Siesta muttered that, Arty's curiosity took the better of him.

"Dragon's raiment?"

"Well, it's a strange artifact, which my grandfather used to fly here from another world…or plane."

_Oh well, typical, you start explaining planes, it is obvious the chatter ensues next._

_It might be interesting however to use it. Maybe it's a way back._

…_we could *try* that._

"You have made me curious Siesta. When do you finish working?" as Arty asked that, Siesta turned slightly red.

"Yesterday actually, but I waited for your return because I thought you'd be interested" as she said that she smiled giggling, "after all you always do help us when we need a hand".

"Oh my, you shouldn't have…really, let us then depart immediately" as he said that, Arty stood up and clapped his hands.

Immediately, over thirty ghostly butlers appeared from nowhere, scaring off some people until they realized that, not only were they harmless, but they were also cleaning up and doing all the duties of the staff.

"There, they'll work for two days straight. We can go now Siesta" as he said that, Siesta closed her mouth, and nodding, dashed to get prepared.

Arty moved swiftly to Louise's room, to grab her and warn her.

"We're going to Tarbes."

"What! No! I'm still mad at…" but she couldn't stop him from actually sending her to sleep.

When Louise woke up, she was on what looked like a ghostly carriage of sorts, with ghostly horses moving at a speed which would have normally been impossible, next to her stood Siesta, happily chanting a song together with the crow, Guendaline. Outside, the sky was showing the moon up above, with the stars shining brightly.

"What…I'm killing Arty" as she muttered that, the crow croaked a reply:

"CRA! No killing master! Master is good! Good master dies, bad master comes. Bad master is bad. Really bad! CRA!"

"What are you talking about Guendaline?" Siesta asked smiling at the crow, Louise however paled.

"Good master and bad master. They are both the same. One dies the other comes. The other comes destruction comes. Death and death. Death and DEATH!" as she croaked once more, she suddenly jerked up and disappeared into thin air.

Siesta stared at Louise, and Louise stared back, because the pink-haired girl shrugged, muttering:

"That crow teases people. There's nothing to fear from Arty" as she said that, however, she herself wasn't so sure about that.

"If you say so Miss Vallière" the maid reply a bit shocked.

"Anyway, why are we going to Tarbes maid?" Louise asked slightly pissed off.

"Well, Arty had a will to see the Dragon's raiment, which belonged to my grandfather" Siesta replied, trying her best to avoid mentioning she actually suggested the idea in the first place.

"I see, and where *is* Arty right now?"

"He's driving the carriage" Siesta replied.

"I understand, wait here a moment" Louise muttered, and then, with a really risky maneuver she climbed out of the carriage's window, on top of the carriage and then jumped at Arty's neck trying to choke him, or at least try.

"HEY!" Arty muttered, grabbing her firmly and pushing her on the seat next to him, actually helping her in her decision of hitting him with everything she had.

"What are you doing! Why Tarbes! EH! I'm still mad at you!" she yelled at him.

"The artifact enabled Siesta's grandfather to come here from another world" as he said that, he actually stressed the last words, "I could use it to get back to mine, if I manage to make it work" as he finished the sentence, Louise suddenly slumped on her seat.

"Ah. I see." She whispered.

"It's better this way" Arty whispered, "If I find a way to go back home, it will be better. My family too needs me"

_Yeah, because if we aren't around THOSE IDIOTS kill each other: I'm going to tear a new hole in half of them, EVEN if they did nothing!_

"I understand…I should have thought about sending you home first and foremost…" Louise muttered guiltily, just to get slightly tapped on the head.

"Don't worry child, worst case scenario I might be stuck here for life"

_And unlife, and it would be the BEST case scenario._

_You remember the god's problem right?_

_Yeah, but we could deal with it in a couple of centuries. The first pebble has already been cast._

"Why would it be worst case scenario?" Louise queried, curious.

"Because when you'd die, I'd die with you." as he said that, Louise blushed furiously, what was he talking about! And why was he being so broody and moody about it?

"What do you mean! Surely, I am going to outlive you, I'm young…"

"And I'm immortal" with those words, Louise stared at him for a second.

"Come again" she said.

"Immortal. I'm immortal. I will not age or die"

"…oh" was all she could say.

Sure, she had thought he was jesting, and maybe she had exaggerated his age to the hundreds, but…immortal?

"How old are you really Arty? Tell me. I want to know"

"Seven hundred sixty-four years. I was born on the day of the Black month, in the Moonless Night, when undead rise from their graves and crows eat the flesh of the dead" he muttered.

"Broody month to be born" Louise said after a couple of minutes.

"My sister said the same things, when she was alive, of course" he whispered back.

"Just…why?" she whispered back.

"Why she said it was a broody month?" Arty looked at her puzzled.

"No, why are you immortal? What happened? I wouldn't survive knowing that all the people I consider my friends, my loved ones, my family, would die before me, and I'd keep on living forever. Why?"

Arty took a moment, to collect his thoughts, and then with a small smile, looked up, at the stars of the nightly sky:

"Why huh? Well…because I did not want to be forgotten. Those who die eventually get forgotten, you know?" as he said that, Louise stared at him, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"What? It's the truth. To be forgotten is something so horrible, so saddening, so grievous, that everyone does what he can to avoid it. People will do things for fame, for glory, for honor, just so that they can be remembered, but even then, they will eventually be forgotten. There are people who seek to be remembered, and those who do not. I sought to be remembered, and that is why I became immortal. If I do not die, I cannot be forgotten"

"It's sad. You're alone then, always alone, what of your family? What will happen when they will die too?" Louise asked, and at that, Arty actually smiled.

"Oh, but you see, my family is immortal too." And with that, he erupted into a chuckle, which then became a loud laughter.

Louise stared at him, and then dried her tears with a handkerchief, the same that Arty had given to her and had yet to take back.

"You're lying to make me feel better?" as she asked that, she began thinking: maybe half-elves from where Arty came from were immortal?

"No, I would never dare such a feat to my friend" Arty replied, with a gentle smile, which brought Louise to punch him straight on the shoulder

"So you're immortal, your family is immortal, and yet you will die if we are separated?"

"Precisely!" as he said that, he smiled to her like the fact didn't matter to him.

"I swear I'll find a way to get you back home Arty, on the honor of the La Vallière"

_Good lord of darkness almighty, we are this plane's best liars. _

_Mantle of charisma+12._

_Who cares! We are liars, the best! The very best!_

_Stop it you!_

_No really, the way we spin our lies could very much enter into history by itself! _

"Then I'm sure I will get back easily" he said with another chuckle.

"Count on it" as Louise said that, she looked in front of her at the road passing by. Still a bit sleepy, she did however slowly drop her head on Arty's shoulder, shivering a bit from the air moved by the carriage.

"Arty." She whispered half-asleep.

"Yes?" the wizard asked once more, with his gentle tone, as Tarbes' village finally showed itself at the horizon.

"Thank you for being my friend" Louise muttered, before falling asleep once more. She sure was sleepy that day.

"It's a pleasure" Arty replied, as he could feel that also the maid had fallen asleep.

He stopped the ghostly carriage near the town, hoping it would be close enough to reach the artifact, and went in invisible.

_An artifact so powerful to travel dimensions, left in a peasant's village, and unguarded? Do they take us for idiots?_

_Might be a trick, or it might not be, that's why we're going in alone._

_If there aren't at least hidden devils, or celestials, or heck, even a Kolyarut or two I'm…_

_Shut up, there actually seems to be nothing magical in the village, except a slight source of magic from that metallic eyesore._

Arty, silently and efficiently, made his way to the only structure in the village which was a complete punch in the eye from the rest, and also the source of the only magic. It looked like a sort of metallic house, with metallic doors that slid to the side.

_This looks like one of Mechanus' doors._

_It's not reinforced with hold person. So…__Ethereal Jaunt_

As Arty effortlessly moved through the mechanical door, he stepped inside a dark place, where no light shone.

_Ghost Light_

A small blue flame lit itself on a candle, held by a skeleton hand, both of which appeared out of thin air, right next to Arty, showing his surroundings in a pale blue hue, a strange mechanical contraption, made of metal, with blades attached to its tip, and strange etchings and covers, was there, while next to it, a set of even more strange mechanical things, and a couple of dusty books. As Arty moved closer to the artifact, realizing that there were no traps, the magic on it simply a sort of repair type, he slowly touched it, and at that precise instant, he stopped.

_Oh…oh. OH. OH. AHAHAHAHAHA! _

_Oh my…oh my…oh…_

_I…I think I soiled my pants._

_You don't have pants!_

_I DON'T CARE._

As the runes of the Gandalfr explained to him how a Zero fighter was meant to be used, what it needed to work, and how effective it actually was, Arty shivered from excitement at the thought of using more than one of them on the battlefield.

_Fabricate spell should work. Mass Fabricate for the bullets, and the plane itself. It's a plane. They called it an Airplane! _

_Gasoline might be more difficult however. _

_Identify Dweomer, coupled with this world's alchemy should do the trick, and then we use fabricate never the less to recreate it. _

_Good gracious, Mechanus would actually give us his powers willingly if we handed this over to him._

_Now let's not rush it, okay?_

Recollecting himself after maybe a couple of hours, in which he had been nearly sniffing the paint out of the plane, he remembered he had left the two girls asleep on the ghostly carriage, and teleported back. Just in time to actually enter the village, before arousing the suspicions of some of the country folk, who had started to question why they were hearing sounds of horses when there were none.

The ghost carriage suddenly appeared straight in the middle of the village, and many peasants actually grabbed their pitchforks first, before stopping at the sight of the men who was descending. While he didn't look like a commoner, he didn't even look like a noble, but, most of all, he looked like a saint.

With his angelic visage, many dropped their pitchforks, and went to grab their daughters, the unwed ones.

"Now, Louise, wake up please" as Arty said that, after having gently refused the fifth daughter of the thirteenth peasant, he was starting to think that maybe these people here were naturally weak to the Sleep spell.

"Five minutes more" she muttered, before being actually brought to a fall down, as the carriage disappeared. The same thing happened to Siesta, and as they both hit the ground, they sprung wide awake.

"Siesta!" a voice yelled from the crowd, as a man made its way towards the maid, her father probably.

"Father? Oh, we have already arrived?" Siesta replied with a smile, standing up and getting hugged by her father.

Louise stood back up, helped by Arty, and as she cleaned her clothes from the dirt of the ground, she realized Arty was staring around himself with a saddened smile. What was the point of him being sad now? She mercilessly tugged one of his arms, and yelled to the rest of the peasants, who were now moving on to another daughter:

"He's my man you got it? No touching him!" as she finished those words she actually reddened and blushed furiously, it had been the spur of the moment, probably.

Still, it did work wonders to have the crowd break, but Arty didn't say a single word about the fact, instead he smiled, as always, and made his way to look at the artifact from Siesta's family.

As he stared at it with glee, the Wizard finally let out the howls of joy and laughter he had been keeping inside for nearly two hours.

It took more than four hours, and the use of a Tongues spell to decipher the words written on a tombstone, before he was granted the Airplane.

It did take less than five minutes for Arty to teleport back to the academy, grab Professor Colbert by the neck, while he was deep in the process of learning Arcane Knowledge, and throw him on the mass production of gasoline.

***Necros***

"I have a bad feeling" the Vampire lord muttered, Baron Sinfer von Tereskian, known as the Red baron of blood, felt chills down his spine.

"Why is it my lord?" his spawn asked, bringing to him a freshly *snatched* human to drink and clench his thirst.

"I hate heights, and I feel the Ruler is going to put me on something that flies"

"Why?"

"A hunch. A sixth sense. Maybe I should change my nickname to something else."

"Should I snatch a couple of poets, my lord?"

"No Gollum, it is fine like this"

***Halkeginia***

"So, Arty. Can you please stop giggling like a madman?" Louise muttered to the wizard, who had reappeared in Tarbes after ten minutes, maybe fifteen, and had kept on giggling for good part of the night, the morning and half the afternoon.

"No! ahahaha! The faces! What they're going to do about it huh! Ahaha" as he kept on, chuckling and trying to suppress laughter, Siesta couldn't help but give to her father an apologetic look.

"I take it some people are going to be surprised about the Dragon's raiment, from where you come from" Siesta's father said.

"More than that, let me tell you this: if an enemy of mine had a thing like that, I too would have to break a sweat to keep it down" as he said that, stares of surprise came from Louise, the only one at the table who had actually ever seen Arty's power, if a bit strange. Since it was a home of farmers, they usually ate out in the fields their lunches, but with a guest such as Arty, they had actually prepared lunch at their home, which, while of peasants origins, was big due to the sheer amount of siblings Siesta had.

"I take it you're strong mister" a boy, no more than nine, muttered, looking at Arty with dreamy eyes. He wasn't the only one of the boys, or the girls, who stared at him in awe. The fact he had actually conjured sweets out of thin air and gifted them to the children had helped in establishing him as the best possible candidate for Siesta to marry.

"You can call me Arty. Now tell me, anything in the village needs to be repaired? Sowing fields? I need to absolutely repay the kindness of your hospitality" as Arty said that, he had actually finished the third plate in a row of stew, albeit tasteless to him, he was hungry. Having to regain control of his stomach had been a problem, more because he wasn't used to it since a long time.

Louise muttered something under her breath, but nobody heard it.

"You're already doing so much…we do not want to…" Siesta's mother was about to say something, when Arty stood up, with a smile.

"Those who have power to help have no excuses not to"

"If all nobles were like him!" Siesta's father exclaimed, which made Louise blush furiously.

Arty stepped outside the house, after having repaired its walls, leaking roof, and having made the mud actually become bricks.

He had rinse and repeated the process with the entire village, and now, tired, and for the first time, without spells, except the *deadly six* as he called them, he sat watching the village's field being caressed by the wind.

"See, this is not a bad thing: helping others, did you see the smile on their face?" Arty whispered to the wind.

"_You're making me puke harder and harder"_ the coarse voice muttered to Arty's ear.

"Why must it always end in violence, life? If we can help, why not?"

"_We sought power for petty feelings, we achieved it because we were meant for greatness. Revenge. Anger. Hate. Those are our strengths"_

"You know partner…those are also Gandalfr's" Derflinger, who had stood quiet during all the time, finally spoke to him.

"Gandalfr is fueled on emotions. The more emotions you feel, wherever sadness or anger, love or hate, make your power stronger"

"_So for me it's worthless, isn't it?"_

"But it's not for me" Arty replied.

"Partner, I take it you do not wish to let the girl know about your true self, right?" Derflinger muttered, "But mostly, it's yourself who do not wish to accept himself, right?"

"_What can a sword know of me? Know your place, tool of destruction."_

"Partner, I feel you know what happened to Prince Wales, but more than that, I always felt I had two partners, until that night in Albion, were suddenly I felt like I had only one. What is your true objective, partner? Wherever you're good or evil I don't care, I'm partner's aid."

"Gods are fickle beings, Derflinger. They toy with the lives of mortals, enjoying their pass time with death, pain, suffering and sadness never ending: To fight the fickle gods wizards were born, in a long and distant past, wielding powers so great that even the gods feared them, because they knew that eventually, wizards would conquer them and remove them."

"_We can rival the gods, if they come one at the time, that is"_

"But they'd never do that, because, no matter what, they wish to keep the status quo among themselves." As Arty spoke, he stared at the field in front of him, and finally muttered.

"How long have you been listening, child?" as he turned around, the nine years old brother of Siesta stared at him in shock. Arty stood up, and moved a hand:

"I'm sorry child, I only have"

"_One of the deadly six spells now" _

And the next moment, the boy vanished. In thin air. Like it never existed. Like it never crept upon the kind mister who had given him sweets to hand over his precious shiny stone in hope for the kind mister to marry his kind sister.

He hadn't understood much, but the kind mister had turned around, facing him with red flicker and fiery eyes, and as it had said those words, the boy had realized that that man wasn't good, he wasn't good at all: he was evil. He couldn't yell however, he never got the chance to, because the black sphere charged straight at him with astonishing speed. The next instant, it was nothingness.

***Minutes later***

"I can't seem to find Marcus" Siesta's mother said worriedly.

"He might have gone to play with some of his friends" Siesta replied.

"But it's getting late"

"I can go look for him" Arty offered, standing up once more, but being pushed back down by Siesta's father.

"No need! You already helped the entire village, boys be boys: he'll surely be out skirt chasing!"

"He's only nine dear!" Siesta's mother replied.

"Then he's off throwing frogs against girls"

"But I heard about orcs near in the forest…you know they are growing restless" Siesta's mother whispered.

"Fine, I'll grab Jorvis and go look for him" Siesta's father said, as he stood up together with the oldest son of Siesta's family, and then they both left.

Arty finished eating quickly, and then excused himself too: he wanted to look for the boy also, no matter what, so Louise followed him too.

"Arty, where are we going?" Louise asked the man, who seemed to take an immediate direction.

"I've got a Wizard trick I can use to locate people" he muttered back at her, he actually had the spell, but he had swapped it out for repair ones, and thus was lying and at the same time, he wasn't.

"So why are you in a hurry?" Louise whispered.

"Because I didn't much care if he was throwing rocks in a river or playing in the village's square, but he's in the forest, and you heard HIS mother" Arty replied swiftly.

_We are this world's best liars. Bestest ever!_

_Shut up, I had no choice, and now I have to cover the tracks._

_You could have done nothing at all._

_It would have increased the family's despair, not actually knowing anything._

"Oh." Louise muttered, increasing her pace, "can't you conjure a horse or fly?" she asked him.

"I used all my spell slots of that circle and above to repair the village, thanks to the way the noble of Tarbes is treating them, I only have petty tricks or spells of absolute destruction, and trust me, those spells would bring down a city" Arty replied, biting his lips.

"What!" Louise exclaimed shocked, but not stopping. Well, she knew that Arty had a limit to the spells he could cast, much like the willpower requirement, but she didn't expect him to be so frank about going head on against a group of orcs to save a kid.

Well, being him Arty it was to be expected.

Suddenly, she heard a loud shriek, and was pushed backwards just in time to avoid a spear, thrown by an ambusher orc, that hit the ground precisely where she would have been seconds before.

It came to her as a surprise to actually see Arty bleed, for once.

"Oh yes. I forgot: wizard tricks for armor weren't on" with a smile so clean it made her even more shocked. How could he walk with a spear thrown across his body?

"Arty…" she whispered.

"Stand here for a moment" the Wizard replied, turning to the orc who, surprised by the humans' cool, had actually moved to face them with his club. Orcs weren't small beasts, at all. Feeding on human children as a delicacy, they were double or thrice the size of a man, with powerful muscles, and usually came with trolls. The ambushed Orc roared, as it charged forward, but it didn't make many steps, that he violently exploded from the inside out, entrails flying around.

"Implosion" Arty had but whispered the spell, and then around them, entrails flew once more. Louise couldn't help but be shocked at the sights of other orcs, probably trying to flank them, explode violently without standing a chance, like it was meant to be that, that day, orcs would blow up like fireworks.

Then, as Arty stopped to look around, he stared back at Louise, who was paling and shivering.

"First time you see so much blood?" he asked her, and she nodded, starting to cry and hug her knees in a fetal position.

"Y-Yes." She whispered, staring at his gentle face saddened by grief, now she no longer doubted him: he could bring down a city, it was clear he could, his powers weren't normal, they weren't even above normal. When he claimed he could rival the gods, he was real, he wasn't boasting, or being mad. He could rival the gods. Her familiar, her friend, her kind and gentle friend, could rival the gods themselves. She stared at him, stared at his power always kept in check, always hidden, and couldn't help it, she really couldn't help it, but began crying, tears after tears flew down her eyes, as Arty started looking inside one of the orcs bodies…and then, he cursed the gods.

"Louise. Go and call Siesta's father" he whispered.

That was when she knew, she knew that this too would haunt him forever. He was like that, he was too kind yet he was too frail, too weak. She stood up, and ran back to the village, to where the rest of the villagers had already amassed, in search for the boy. When Louise arrived with tears, Siesta's father was the first to understand. He didn't want to, but he understood. So he went first, as Siesta hushed to the crying pink haired girl side and held her close, both crying.

Siesta's father returned with a bundle of clothing, not bigger than an arm's length, Arty was behind him, staring down at his feet, the look of guilt on his face was enough for many of the village to understand that, even if he had helped them, he wasn't all powerful. He was human, and as a human, he made mistakes.

_I'm writing this in my memoirs when I get back home._

_I didn't like it one bit._

_Binding rule agreement can be like that, right? But it was better this way. Now the entire village respects you, and tales of how you have singlehandedly destroyed an entire orc ambush squad is going to spread._

_The second pebble has been cast, right?_

_Right._

_When the avalanche will come…_

…_we will laugh as hard as we really can…_

…_because to con the gods…_

…_one needs balls of steel man, I tell you, balls of steel!_

**Author's notes:**

** Hammerchuckery: Well, it is a stark contrast of magics. One has willpower and is like a *World of Warcraft* magic where spells are dependent on *Talent trees* and are on a mana/willpower basis. D&D instead is based on the spell slots, and in a square off confrontation, the wizard usually does win, because the first is Element-based, while the second has more freedom. On the long run, however, it's the opposite, because the wizard has few spell slots, and has to choose which to prepare ahead of time (unless Spell Matrix, ninth circle spell, is used) while the mages can simply go off and move their wands until they faint. Obviously, the wizard with quickened spells always wins, but that's another talk all in all. .**

**Final notes:**

**If anyone has any clues about any specific geographical things of Halkeginia, like capitals, important viewpoints, or similar, of countries not much explained (like Germania, I only know the capital is Vindobona) by all means send them through, I am soon going to *expand* in another areas.**


	8. Chapter 8: The King's first move

**I am deeply, deeply, sorry, but I simply could not resist to insert the Oc's perfect for the *cause*. Once again, Sorry. (I'm laughing as I'm saying this, you'll understand reading downwards)**

Chapter Eight

Arty hadn't said a word for the remainder of the week, returning to the academy in silence, and closing himself up in grief, or so it seemed. Louise too had left Siesta and her family to their grief, and had followed the Wizard back to the academy. During that period of time, he simply worked on the dragon's raiment, repairing it, adding strange glyphs and runes to its wings, and, all in all, changing its hue to one more dark and broody. Louise on the other hand dreamed of Artos' daily life in the strange city he was in, some sort of dwarven and human mix, and how he did seem to be eating little to nothing, he did sport a ring of sustenance on his hand, at least, that's what she recognized it for. Still, he hadn't done much except staying low, for that week, so she was starting to wonder when something would happen.

Louise couldn't help but watch his back, as he silently worked together with Professor Colbert, who could now cast a couple of cantrip level spells. This surprised Arty to no limit, more so because he realized that Colbert wasn't tapping onto Louise's arcane portal, but was naturally converting his own willpower into arcane raw energies, and using them.

Louise bit her lips, thinking about how she had to train in her sleep, looking at what Artos was doing and trying her best to mimic it. She had realized she was no wizard, as she stood over the open, blank book, the one on which she'd have to write the princess' poem.

Having to use every elements to write it, she had really no idea on what to use, and was kind of fantasizing about her arriving at the marriage, held in Vindobona, the Germanian capital, together with Arty, saying how sorry she was, and then teleporting to a sunny beach and stay there in hiding for at least a good four to five months of time.

"That wouldn't work" she muttered to herself, as she realized once more that Arty was staring at the emptiness of the Vestri courtyard, which was usually empty, and he was muttering to himself.

"There he goes again, self-accusing himself" as she said that, she stood up, grabbing her courage, and moved close to him, just to hear some sort of slight litany in the air.

Was there a chorus somewhere actually?

Those were little whispers, nothing more, but they did stick out like a sore thumb, it was like someone was trying to murmur in her ears, through a set of wool, of really thick wool.

Once close enough, she threw a kick at the wizard's leg from behind, which brought him back to reality.

"Arty! Stop day dreaming! So, can it fly?" as she asked that to the wizard, she showed him her best pouty face.

"Oh, yes Louise, all it needs now is the correct dose of gasoline. The bullets are easy to produce, as long as I'm near an iron mine of sorts," as he said that, he showed her some strange prolonged cartridges, made with a golden hue, "and with gunpowder, albeit a bit differently made".

"You can create things from thin air, right?" Louise knew it was true, it hadn't been the first time he had.

"As long as somewhere, nearby, there are its prime components, yes," as he said that, he looked around and pointed at the grass, "let's say you want a grass basket."

"I don't want a grass basket" she replied.

"I said let's say you want one. I snap my fingers and…" after snapping them, the grass around them suddenly looked like freshly cut, while in Arty's hand a basket made of tightly knitted grass blades appeared.

"So, it's like an equivalent exchange?" she asked to him, curious.

"No…because I'm a con artist" as he said that, he smiled, and snapping once more, he produced a beautiful night-blue silk dress, which actually made Louise stare at it with awe.

"Here, a gift to you, m'lady" as he said that with a joking tone he handed the dress over to Louise.

"But…how?" Louise asked, baffled, as she actually felt the silk's wonderful smoothness, like no weaver could ever hope to compare.

"A spell requires components, or materials: either from the wizard's hands, or from its surroundings. I mold the very same arcane energy around until it assumes there actually *is* the component, and then I actually create it: that's the gist of it" Arty replied, before turning back to the plane.

"So…is there something you can't conjure?" as she asked that, a small glint in her eyes came by, _gold, jewels, heck, even more than that, ponies!_

"Living things, for once" as he said that, Louise's gaze became a bit saddened, _well, no ponies_.

"Then, while I can conjure prime materials, they do not last much: it needs to become a complete product by the end of it, if it wishes to remain permanent. I wouldn't be able to conjure a raw diamond, but I could conjure a diamond ring." Louise's gaze turned vivid, but was soon interrupted by Arty's quick dismissal through hand-wave.

"No. I will not conjure baubles which help no one and do nothing."

"But you conjured me a dress!"

"That's for the princess' marriage. Furthermore it's a gift." He replied, "Not something you conjure just so you can sell it, just so you can get a couple of ponies from the market"

"A girl can't dream!" she yelled back at him, red in the face.

"Not of ponies" as he replied that swiftly, he patted her on the head and went back to work on the Zero fighter, or, how Arty had renamed it, *the flying butcher*.

That was when something caught Arty's eye. A messenger hurrying towards the academy, with his thoughts out in the air and literally shouted into his mind, he couldn't help it, but show a face of anger.

_The third pebble._

_Let it come._

_Start the butcher._

_It's flying butcher, the flying butcher._

_Just start the damn major artifact!_

Louise stared at her familiar, and in her familiar's direction, towards the running messenger. Arty didn't fret towards him, but Louise did, and followed him.

The messenger literally barged into the headmaster's office, yelling:

"Albion has declared war! They are landing in Tarbes as I speak! Her majesty has already rallied the troops and is moving there! For safety reasons, all students and staff are confined in the building until…" he would have said *further notice*, really, if not for the fact that Louise entered the office of the headmaster, pale in the face, and yelled a, highly justifiable, albeit a bit scarce on the contents:

"What!" she couldn't believe it, _isn't Tarbes Siesta village? If so Arty would…where is Arty now?_

She looked next to her, behind her, but no, Arty wasn't there, instead, as the headmaster was about to reply, a strong noise caught their attentions. They all moved towards the window of the office, to have a better view, and there, spinning its rotors, the flying butcher began moving, before anyone could move a finger, it was already high in the sky, going toward the direction of Tarbes.

"…You're reporting back to La Rochelle, right?" Louise hurriedly asked the messenger, who nodded.

"Headmaster, get him a fresh horse, I'm going with him"

"Miss Vallière, you heard the man…" Osman tried saying, but was snapped at till silence by Louise, who yelled with as much strength as possible:

"My familiar, my friend, is going there on a flying artifact! He's going alone, and he's probably going to die if I don't go and stop him!" as she yelled that, she kind of started having doubts on Arty's intelligence, or wherever he was an idiot throughout and through, sure he had bested orcs like they were flies, but warship and three thousand enemies? What was he thinking! Furthermore, he was risking his own life staying too far away from her, and yet he had moved. It had to be his guilt sense.

"It's impossible we'll reach him in time, Miss, their army is made of at least a dozen of ships plus their flagship, the Lexington, their troops are at least three thousands, while all we managed to rally were two thousands so our troops are holed in La Rochelle, together with the princess at the head of the army, and La Rochelle is probably as far as I'll get to before they begin fighting each other." The messenger replied, calming down the pink-haired girl.

Louise actually bit her lips, then clenching her fists, muttered:

"Nobody will stop me from getting to princess' side, and when I'll get there I'll get her permission to go to the fields of Tarbes myself! Now, get him a horse headmaster, or I'll steal one if I have to!" as she yelled that, she hurried off to the stables.

***Meanwhile, inside the Flying Butcher***

"The glyphs are ready and working" as he muttered that, he double-checked them.

_Really, feeding on arcane marks and glyphs like they were snacks is DEBASING._

_Do you have a better idea? I could eat up the *second* ring of sustenance I just made._

_Keep that as a last resort._

_Well, by the speed this things fly, I might actually make it in time._

_Always gambling, huh?_

_Gambles left to luck are the only thing that can defeat the gods._

_Now that I'm thinking, this thing couldn't have traveled through dimensions._

_I know. _

_So how did it get here?_

_It doesn't matter, if it has gotten till here, then it has the means to get back, have you readied the contingencies?_

_Aye! Your friendly Demilich Copilot has all checked._

_Then let's get the party starting._

_If you dare to put Thriller on I'm leaving the cockpit._

Arty chuckled, as the first of many arcane marks scribbled on the inside crumbled to dust, its arcane energy fueling the body of the wizard, and in front of him, after a bit less than an hour, stood the field of Tarbes, and on a hill nearby, stood an army with Tristain's banners, while the fleets of Albion had begun having their troops decent.

"Albions' Dragoons, huh? Let's see if this works" as soon as Arty said that, he turned the cloche upwards, starting to speed up above the clouds.

***Henrietta's side***

"Cardinal, what is that?" as the princess asked, pointing at the strange and utterly fast thing flying towards the battlefield, she couldn't help but shiver. Thanks to wind magic, while the cardinal used a spyglass, they were both able to see it more clearly for what it was: A strange T shaped black thing, with golden and purple trims, red stripes encircled it, with a symbol of a clawed skeleton hand, wielding a staff which sent sparks around, etched onto its wings, its side, and its front.

It shone brightly into the day, like it was on fire, maybe for the suns' glare on the glyphs written on the outside, or maybe because the metal, or the paint, had been naturally reflective. In any case, Cardinal Mazarin wasn't one to let this opportunity lay to waste:

"That's the legendary phoenix! The symbol of Tristain! It has come to…" and at that precise moment, his words died in his mouth.

The clouds above the ships torn asunder, as a bright black circle sprouted from the sky itself, in the precise instant the moons conjoined, high in the sky in the middle of the day, and from that circle, came forth an aura of oppression and wickedness. Suddenly some of the sailors of Albion's ships began being pulled upwards, as gravity itself bended its rules, and those on the upper level of the ships ended up holding onto whatever bit of rope they could find, to avoid being engulfed by that sheer blackness, those who didn't ended up screaming and crying, as the punishment from founder Brimir himself, as many thought that was, took the toll on them.

"Is that really the phoenix, and not a demon from hell, cardinal?" Henrietta asked, mouth agape, as the gruesome sight unfolded in front of their eyes.

***Arty's side***

"Gravity Control launched with success, their ships are losing maneuverability, beginning bombardment" as he muttered those words, he pressed his left palm on a circle, which had been shining for a while on the left side of the cockpit.

The three thousands Albion's troops on the ground had been advancing towards La Rochelle, under the help of their fleets bombarding the city. So, when the bombardment stopped, they had thought it was because the order to charge had been given. Only when one of the officers turned around to look at the Lexington, did they realize the problem.

The ships were in disarray, as something was pulling the sailors upwards, towards a black circle high in the sky.

"Seems it's the moons!" Arty yelled, to no one in particular.

"I am receiving Arcane Energy from there! How much time until they close?" he asked again, to no one in particular. Derflinger stood on the co-pilot seat, looking at the man who was his user, and who had the guts to kill a child for having discovered his secrets. He wasn't good, at all, but Derflinger had never thought he'd also be that bad. With things like this, could he actually be his partner? He had no choice, the partner had been chosen through the summoning ritual, clearly, the runes were those of Gandalfr, and so he was Gandalfr; an unorthodox Gandalfr but still one.

_Just wait till I get the triangulations right…HOW WOULD I KNOW WHEN THE FRIGGIN MOONS STOP DOING THAT!_

_Calm down!_

On the ground, three thousand troops suddenly saw bright flashes brighten up the battlefield, and then some felt a strange fierce flame blow over them, burning them to crisps, others were thrown aside by the strength of the impact, other again managed to duck and dodge, and instead of a merciful death, got a long agony as the burns kept burning their bodies. As bright craters appeared in their numbers, and above them the strange demonic thing flew, with no piety or mercy.

The Dragoons tried their best flying to pursue it, but it was too fast for their dragon's wings. So they tried to place themselves in front of it, just to have them torn asunder by strange bright things, the bullets of the airplane.

_Ready for the gamble?_

_You think she made it?_

_I don't know. A gamble is about that._

_The third pebble, right?_

_THE THIRD._

With that, he muttered a simple spell of summon servant: hold the cloche upwards, towards the portal, and bring the plane back to Necros. Then, he grabbed Derflinger and teleported down below, on the field. In front of the princess, Henrietta, and of the Cardinal, who, since they were perched atop one of the La Rochelle's walls, couldn't help but point their wands at the back of the strangely silent, yet flying man in front of them.

Up above, the demonic bird flew straight into the black circle, and disappeared beyond it.

***Henrietta's side***

Suddenly, bright red flashes had fallen downwards, from the demonic bird's belly, sending the troops below into splinters of blood and bones, or making them ash beyond recognition. Still, no more than a hundred troops had been killed. Many were scared, but their deaths had not been enough. Then it had suddenly spun around, avoiding the Dragoon's of Albion, renowned for their strength, tearing through them like they were worthless piles of butter. Finally, it had ascended into the black circle, disappearing from view, and at the same time, Arty had appeared in front of the Princess and of the Cardinal.

They both stared at his back, wands in hand, as so did the many knights next to them: he simply raised his right hand in a small gesture of *I've got this*, and then he began chanting.

At least, to them, it was a chant. To him, it was one of his deadly six spells. It wasn't implosion, and it wasn't the sphere of destruction, it was something he had no trouble using, and he had fond memories of using it on the battlefields during the expansion of Necros into the neighboring countries. A spell many of his enemies had learned to fear and many others had learned to respect.

Henrietta ordered her knights, and the cardinal, to lay down their wands for the moment, and she looked at the Wizard chanting, she looked at the wizard who had insulted her and had taken her voice for half an hour, who had proven her magic worthless, her magic, that of royalty, weak. The chant wasn't long: six seconds, but in those six seconds, the words she heard made her shiver.

"By my will above that of the gods, by my strength, higher than that of a mortal, by my magic, fiercer than the deepest hell, come forth from the skies, fallen stars, METEORS!" and as Meteor Rain was cast, suddenly, the ground in front of them shook. Many soldiers of Tristain stared in awe, as the stars themselves fell on the battlefield, leaving craters, tearing apart soldiers, platoons, destroying the very same ships of the Albion fleet, as thrown downwards from the skies above, as if god himself had no power to prevent said shame, stars fell that day. They fell on the battlefield of man, hitting with sheer ferocity, grinding to pulp those lucky enough to be hit nearby, scorching to death those close, and throwing across the ground those unlucky enough to be the target of a slow death.

It wasn't over, however, and as the thousands regrouped once more, he chanted again, this time, music echoed into the air; it was like an orchestra of epic proportions, coupled with the movements of the hands and the words, of the Wizard, of the familiar of Louise.

"By the strength of the foundation, by the will of one greater than you, by the hardened stone of the deepest planes, arise Golgoth, destroyer of cities!" as he yelled that, Arty raised his left hand in the air, and a point in the battlefield, suddenly flashed with bright purple lights, as a being composed itself from the very same earth of it, standing upwards, and growing, growing until it became as high as a mountain could possibly be, and it stared downwards, to the puny mortals his master had ordered him to kill. Kill he did, for the will of the ruler of Necros was his own. As his fist, as big as a hill, slammed downwards, sending cracks and earthquakes in all directions, the soldiers began running away, the being needed not follow, as it hurled chunks of rocks against them, before melding in the earth, and reappearing on the other side, slamming down humans, soldiers and mages alike, as their spells could do nothing against him, elder of earth. Then, as the battlefield slowly grinded to a mass of crying, wailing or dying soldiers, the elemental slowly dispersed, his consciousness drifting away, back to his plane as the summon ended. Every movement of the elemental had been mimicked by Arty, and the general idea was that the being was more of an extension of the man than a being of its own, another deception, one of the many.

Henrietta stared. She couldn't but stare at that strength. That power that had sent in disarray an army of three thousands, that had decimated it, broke it and that had destroyed their fleet and had changed the course of the battle. That power was legendary, it was on par with that of Founder Brimir himself, or maybe, was it even stronger? The man suddenly flew down, landing in front of both the Princess and the Cardinal, and then turned around, facing them with a wide smile.

"I think I'm going to need some rest," as he whispered that, the portal, high above the moons, suddenly closed, and hit with the lack of arcane energies, all that Arty could do was gulp down the ring of sustenance once more.

_Will she get here in less than an hour?_

_Doubt it…_

_Stop doubting._

…

_Sheesh and alone I am again._

The wizard moved, making a step forward, wobbly on his feet, he made another, and the Cardinal naturally made a step backwards, as did the knights. The princess didn't however, making a couple more forward, because still he had helped them win the battle, and he was after all the familiar of her best friend.

To Arty, before fainting, came the smell of lilies, and as the princess actually moved forward to help him steady on his feet, the Cardinal helped her too, and then, as his consciousness slipped into sleep, they both carried him to the medical tent, which was surprised to see that the only wounded of the battlefield had been but a man, who simply required sleep.

"Your highness…who is this man?" the Cardinal asked Henrietta, who stared back at Mazarin with a saddened expression.

"I don't know Cardinal, either he's founder Brimir himself reborn, or he's someone even stronger."

***Artos' Dream***

There he was, again, flying around giggling like a madman, with a spiral like movement, its jewels shining brightly against the general light of the place their dreams usually ended up being.

"You think this is going to end well?" Arty muttered, looking at the flying skull, which stopped to stare back at him.

"My dear ME, obviously it is going to! You saw the look on their faces before fainting? Chaos will erupt soon, and then you will be called again. I'm sure as…" but the skull stopped, staring at a third figure, which closely resembled Arty, albeit being made of a rotting corpse.

"You both know the drill…why do you insist?" it muttered looking at both sides of the same coin: he couldn't help but feel disgust at what he was and what he had become.

"Look pal, laws are there to be broken" the flying skull muttered.

"I doubt Mechanus would consider that" Arty replied.

"You are opposing the will of the contract!" the lich figure yelled, "This is a gamble too high on the risks!"

"It's a gamble we must do. They defied US we are defying them!" the Demilich form of Artos yelled at the Lich form, who yelled back the stupidity of doing that.

"Shut up all of you" Arty meekly muttered, "We are in a bigger problem."

"What is…Oh we're close to an arcane energy portal," Artos Lich-form stated.

"Precisely" and with that, Arty knew that he had slept long enough.

***Healer's tent***

Louise was staring at the sleeping figure of the man. She had managed to arrive just in the nick of time, and not thanks to the horse. On their way towards La Rochelle, they had intercepted Tabitha, returning to the academy with Kirche and on Sylphid. Hurriedly explaining the situation, Tabitha had agreed to use Sylphid to reach La Rochelle fast.

Louise had been expecting to see a battlefield, a scene of war and destruction on both sides, and, while being right, she hadn't been so completely. The battlefield was a sight to be seen, the very same landscape seemed to have changed from the normal fields of grain to a rocky, barren, wasteland. Flames still sprouted from the deepest of craters, as the Tristain's forces actually worked on making pile of corpses, while holding back the disgust for how the bodies were mangled.

When a couple of griffon guards ordered them down, she had dismounted from Sylphid together with Kirche and Tabitha, and only the actual presence of the captain of the Manticore guards had made it possible for her to bypass all security and run first and foremost to the side of her friend.

The pink-haired girl was staring at the sleeping man with a serious look, trying to decide between the five different ways she could torture him once he would wake up, but as the time passed, she actually renounced four out of five, and as she finally settled with simply talking to him and reprimand him, night had fallen on La Rochelle.

Henrietta slowly entered the healer's tent, accompanied by a stern looking blond woman.

"Your highness, is that the man?" as she asked the question and Louise turned around to kneel in front of her majesty, in that precise moment Arty opened his eyes.

"Yes, and this here is Louise Françoise, my dear friend…stand up please, your fam…friend has saved us all, today," as Henrietta said that, she had realized Arty was wide awake, and offending him, now when he had proven he was far more powerful than her, would have been a political suicide of the worst possible kind.

"I saw the battlefield…surely he hasn't done all that alone, right?" Louise had her back to where Arty was laying, so she hadn't yet realized he was gently smiling and staring around, without a care in the world.

"Agnes, could you please make sure no one enters the tent?" as Henrietta asked to the stern woman, who nodded, she then proceeded to take a chair and sit, her hands folded, on one side of the bed where Arty was.

"Arty! You're awake!" Louise exclaimed, when, turning around, she realized her friend was actually in the process of politely yawning, hand in front of his mouth, and smiling at her. Rushing over to him, she grabbed him by the neck and started muttering one curse after the other, before Henrietta could even speak a word.

"YOU IDIOT! What if I hadn't arrived in time? You could have died! Why did you have to go and play the hero without me!" after a bit, she left the grip from his neck, and placing her forehead against his chin muttered slowly:

"You're an idiot. Stupid. What about going back home? If you die here, what is your family going to think?" she slowly began sobbing, as Arty, a bit embarrassed by such display straight in front of the princess herself, slowly caressed the pink-haired girl's hair.

"Everything turned out fine, Louise…calm down." He muttered to the girl, who sniffed one last time, before reddening in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry your highness, I must have shown an indecent side of me tonight" she whispered to Henrietta, who shook her head.

"Not at all Louise Françoise, not at all" she too had a saddened expression, maybe because she had heard that while the ship of Albion, the Eagle, had actually arrived into port, not a single living soul was onboard: everyone had been slaughtered with sheer ferocity, from the eldest to the youngest, without making distinctions. Prince Wales's corpse however wasn't on board, nor was whoever had to have guided the ship into port, because someone had to have done such a feat.

"Anyway, Arty, is it? I am sorry but I can't come to call a man of your power only with a nickname…would you be kind enough to tell me with what title I should address you?" Henrietta had asked that gently, but Louise had frozen at the question, _he's the destroyer of good. Not a good title to address him._ As she thought that, however, Arty spoke slowly:

"That depends, if you so wish to, you may call me Arty without problems…but if you actually want my full title…it's King Artos Basileus Sfor, ruler of the kingdom of Necros, which spans from one side of the island of the Ghorzun to the other." As he finished talking, Henrietta stared. So did Louise.

They both actually stared at him for a moment. Then they stared at each other and then back at him, trying to say something. They couldn't actually manage such a feat after such a shock, so they stood quiet, thinking about what they could actually say.

Louise was thinking of how she had been calling Arty, familiar, or stupid, a member of royalty, of a foreign country, who was immortal, old, and powerful. Furthermore she actually knew how big the Ghorzun was: she had seen it in one of her dreams, and as an island, it rivaled the entirety of Halkeginia as a continent. Another thought however crept in her mind: if he was a king, then he had certainly married the princess, and thus when he spoke of a family, did he mean his children? His daughters and sons? She suddenly felt saddened and filled with grief by the thought of having tried to claim a married man. Wait. What was that thought again? She couldn't help but furiously blush crimson once more.

Henrietta on the other hand was thinking about how such a powerful display of magic should have already warned her of his strength. In Halkeginia royalty was such because of the power its magic had, and thus if this man here was able to easily defeat an army, it should have dawned on her already his royalty status. Yet she had openly challenged him the first time, and he had showed mercy, what if she did so again? Though the fact that he was royalty meant that she couldn't just leave him in a Healer's tent like it was nothing, he should be in a private one, with personal healers, and not surrounded by soldiers who had gotten some light wounds removing corpses from the fields. Mostly, however, she thought about the Germanian's situation. He was a king, strong enough to battle three thousands on his own, surely with the Germanian's marriage postponed until the end of the war with Albion, maybe she could make Cardinal Mazarin and her mother accept him as a suitable candidate, if he too was willing. Then, depending on how big his kingdom turned out to be, it could pretty much turn a profitable thing for both of them. She didn't think at all that he could be lying, after all, if his power wasn't enough to prove it, he's attitude of prideful not kneeling was more than enough a warrant.

So, they both stood silent, as Arty stared at them for a bit, before chuckling.

"Now, now, you realize why I usually go by the name of Arty? I hate all the formalities and being called your lordship, highness, majesty and the rest of the crap. Just call me Arty, please"

_Hey, I LOVE that *crap*_

_I don't._

_I do. _

_I'm the body, you get it?_

_I still like it._

"I see…I wanted to personally thank the savior of our country with the Chevalier title, but as it has turned out it would be meaningless for a king…it would seem I owe you a debt that I do not even know if I'll be able to pay, as do the people of Tristain," as Henrietta said that, she actually bowed her head, as did Louise, who instead kneeled.

"Now, please…you're putting me in a tight spot…Louise, do stand up, I do not want a friend to kneel for me, really" as he said that, he actually stood up from the bed, and grabbing Louise by the shoulders brought her back up. Henrietta had a small smile on her face, a man who was treating Louise Françoise, her friend, like his own friend, might have been a better candidate than the Germanian emperor to begin with.

"So…I summoned a king from another plane of existence…I'm really Louise the Zero am I! I couldn't summon someone incompetent like me, no, I had to summon someone who would be dearly missed, and whose absence would certainly cause problems in the long run. I'm pathetical, right?" Louise had tears on her eyes as she slowly spoke her thoughts. That time in the library, when he muttered about losing a family member and now again, was that a royal family member? What if he hadn't actually been summoned? Maybe he could have saved him, he had to hate her, and he really had to: there was no way he would so kind not to hate her for having taken him away from his world. Yet she knew it, and that was another reason why she was still crying, she knew he would forgive her, as always. He was too kind for her, to her.

"Louise Françoise, please…you are still a proud member of the la Vallière family, and I'm sure Lord Artos here holds no ill resentment against you," Henrietta muttered, moving closer to her friend, but facing then Arty himself, "is that right?"

"I said to call me Arty, girl, I am not going to answer to anything else," Arty replied with a gentle smile, "but you're right, I am not angered in the slightest, nor have I ever shown sign of being angered with you, Louise, so, come on…calm down" as he simply hugged her into a bear-like hug, Henrietta's smile grew a bit wider. Louise reddened in embarrassment, now it wasn't her familiar or friend doing this: it was a king from a foreign country, a powerful king at that too.

"Still, have you any heirs or people who can take your place during your absence…Arty?" Henrietta asked, she had yet to query if he was married or not, but this did seem like a polite way.

"Well, I have no heirs, but I do have a lot of hassles around in my family…although they do tend to kill each other at the slightest chance…but I think that around now they are probably going to be busy" he chuckled at that, yeah, they were going to be busy.

***Necros***

The first thing Sinfer had said, looking at the fallen corpses of the strange dressed men, was if the ruler had come back. When the reply had come that no, the ruler hadn't, but a strange mechanical contraption had, together with a set of notes written by the very hand of the ruler, he had given a sigh of relief so big, even his spawns had followed suite.

The necromancers had begun analyzing it, while carefully taking turns to read the notes, but a single letter had been delivered to Sinfer himself, a letter which the baron of blood himself had a bit of uneasiness in opening.

_Child,_

_I have felt the loss of my servants. _

_Do you take me for an idiot, child? When I will return I will exact my punishment on you and on the others. If you wish to avoid partaking in the wrath I will deliver, have the *Airplane* mass produced, and raise the dead bodies of the men that have come together with the plane, and query them of all their knowledge. Once you have done that, prepare the armies suitably, for the night of death will come around._

_Your only and supreme Lord, Artos Basileus Sfor, Ruler of the city of Necros, Destroyer of good, Reaper of Souls._

From the very first word Sinfer had decided he would certainly not fail his lord again, especially since he knew that his predecessor, who had incurred in the wrath of the ruler, had begged for death repeatedly before being granted it, and he actually had felt it, the pain.

As he was about to fold the letter, he realized there was also a print on the back of it, and as he finished reading that, he near out paled even more than he already was.

_Ps: the *Airplane* is capable of flight, you, as one of the most dexterous and intelligent, will have the honor of flying it once gasoline has been produced in enough quantities. Red Baron, do not fail me._

"Oh sh-" the baron muttered.

***Halkeginia***

As it turned out, Henrietta had a strange way to show her debt: parading back to the palace for her coronation as queen, together with Arty himself. In the carriage on the way back, there were sitting a very nervous Cardinal Mazarin, an extremely nervous Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, an utterly calm and composed Arty, and a worried Henrietta. The Cardinal was actually the first to break the silence, muttering:

"It would indeed be for the best if Arty here would be able to give absolute proof of his royalty status. Then we could actually silence the nobles of Tristain, and avoid a diplomatic incident with Germania"

"Arty here has shown more than enough proof of his power at the fields of Tarbes, I say he'd be more than enough qualified to hold royal levels of magic, by our standards" Henrietta replied, to which, however, the Cardinal countered:

"The problem is if it's the same from where he does come from, what if he's lying and, Founder forbids, there are *stronger* persons than him, around?"

_Can I kill him? Please. He's offending me._

_He's also offending me, but I am not disintegrating him._

_You know, it's funny how he is both right and wrong at the same time._

"Cardinal, while I do understand your concerns, if Louise Françoise de la Vallière, my dear friend, holds him in the highest of trusts, then I too will do the same. What stronger power could there be, than to kill thousands in the blink of an eye? To conjure the very same mountains to his side?"

_My real form, for once. I would have finished in five seconds._

_You need six for *that* spell and it would also backfire._

_No fun._

"Still, the way he asks to be addressed is all but royal, I mean, what…" but the Cardinal was suddenly silenced, as the words he wished to say did not come out from his mouth, but the stare of Arty was enough to make everyone understand what had happened.

"I am tired of hearing you complain, Cardinal. Had your soon to be queen not asked my real title, I would have happily gone without. Next time you complain, remember that I can silence persons permanently…" and with that, Arty snapped his fingers once more, and the Cardinal suddenly was again able to speak.

"I…I understand" he muttered, suddenly meeker. The way the man talked was business, probably he was a more direct type of king, instead of a sleazy one, yet they needed proof of some sort, except his godly magic, that is.

"You should wave at the crowd" Arty pointed that out without speaking to no one in particular, but Henrietta understood he was referring to her, why wasn't he using her name? Or Princess? Or queen? Not wishing to pry it from his mouth, not after the tension had risen once more in the carriage, she did as she was told, while Louise stared, embarrassed that she was on the same carriage as two royalties and a regent, but if she wasn't wouldn't it be more troublesome to have one of the royals die? What then if the queen actually ended up marrying her friend? Would she have to move to palace too, because without her he'd be dead? What if in the next room? What if…she reddened at the thought, she couldn't believe she had such a perverted mind, but it had to be Kirche's influence, yes, it had to be HER fault!

Arty chuckled, while looking out of the window, as the crowd applauded the queen, the thoughts of the people twirled around, mixing themselves with those of the people in the carriage.

"Why can't mother keep being the Queen?" Henrietta whispered after a while.

"She does not answer, even when we call her *Your Majesty*, she keeps saying she was just the wife of the king, and is still mourning the loss of the king" the Cardinal replied.

"Why can't I mourn him too? He was my father, also" Henrietta replied, "Why must I fill his throne?"

"Because you're his legacy in the world" Arty replied then, interrupting the Cardinal, at which point, Henrietta looked at the man who was speaking with a serious tone.

"When people live, they do so for themselves and for others. They do so in hope that their children will remember them, that what they do is not worthless, that everything has a meaning, hidden or present. Then they die, leaving those behind to remember them, to act and do meaningful things, for the cycle to repeat itself again and again, until in the end the oldest are forgotten by the youngest, and again this cycle goes on. You are the King's legacy on this world, to renounce that is to make all he has done worthless," as he finished speaking, Arty snapped his finger and a long black wand appeared in his hands. Louise couldn't help but shudder at seeing her reflection in the metal twisted and looking back at her, like it wasn't a reflection, but something alive. She could hear once more those murmurs, growing stronger by the second.

"Though why don't you ask it yourself?" as he said that, he delivered the wand to Henrietta, who looked at it with a puzzled expression, the Cardinal instead stared at the man with shock, he couldn't mean…

"The command word is *Speak* use it on a corpse, and it will answer your questions, since it was bought by me in my youth, it holds but five charges, and the corpse will be able to answer three questions per charge. Every charge used requires a week, before using it again." As he finished speaking, Henrietta watched in disbelief at the man, who was instead as serious as seriousness could be.

"This is…I have no…well, words…but I don't know wherever it would do more good than bad using it…" as she had a puzzled look on her face, Arty laughed, shaking his head.

"Well, the choice is yours, use it, don't use it, forget about it or throw it for the dogs, I will take no offense whatever your course of action will be."

"To speak with the dead…just as simple as saying a word…you're a constant surprise Arty" Louise muttered, shaking her head, no, she had to expect the unexpected from an immortal king, right?

"Well, that's because I am not a cleric: those can bring the dead back to life, as long as they haven't died of natural causes" as Arty said that, the carriage had just arrived to the palace, and just in the nick of time for all the occupants to regain a bit of composure over the thought that not everyone that died actually stayed that way.

As the princess took over the crown, and the throne of Halkeginia, the announcement that Tristain's new queen wouldn't marry Germania's emperor made relationships a bit tense, but when the murmurs of who the man in the same carriage as the regent and queen was came by they suddenly became more relaxed. Germania's nobility could be everything, but plain stupid and suicidal wasn't on their inbred sicknesses.

***Somewhere else***

Someone was utterly furious, why wasn't he doing the evil that would require people to pray for salvation! Why wasn't he actually doing what was to be expected from him! He knew he had to act swiftly, he knew he had to do something, anything at all, and at that moment, a prayer came to him.

_Please! I'm scare; help me, anyone out there, please! _

The prayer suddenly sprouted, following that another one, and another also.

_The founder has abandoned us! _

_We need a sign!_

_Grant me strength!_

The sight of the god stared at Albion now, no longer at the Demilich, and that's when he realized what the bastard had planned. To distract him, to make him defer his attention elsewhere! Albion was being slowly turned to undeath thanks to a plague of ghouls, which were slaughtering the local peasant population, and turning them to their ranks. Without clerics of good, and with few mages actually in the countryside, thanks to the just finished revolution, they were steadily increasing their numbers.

A small village had just gotten attacked by a band of them. A girl, with green eyes and cut short red head stood there, wounded to the side, as a ghoul was about to claw her out of her life and into the misery of undeath.

She had to do for the moment.

***Halkeginia-Albion***

They had come over the night, turning the village into a fiery blaze of death and screams. She had escaped, doing her best, she had always been an orphan, but at least she could survive thanks to the kindness of the people of the village, so she had naturally taken up the first pitchfork she had found around and had decided to help the villagers escape.

Until the thing she had hit with it had given no sign of understanding the pain, and had launched itself at her with fury and homicidal ire. She had ran, ran as fast as she could albeit wounded, and the beast had followed her, grinning and ranting yells of hate and death.

She had fallen next to a tree, and the creature had launched itself forward, for the final strike. At that moment, however, as she was praying for salvation, from anyone, anyone at all, a flash of light suddenly turned the dust the monster.

"WH…what?"

"What is your name, child?" a voice asked, coming from nowhere in particular, around her.

"I…don't have one…" she whispered back to the voice, still, it had saved her, albeit the wound…the wound was gone!

"Then now you do: stand up, first cleric of this world." As the voice said that, gently, the girl did as she was asked, she had no idea what a *cleric* was, or what the voice was, but still, it did seem like a kind enough voice.

"Pray to me at dawn, tomorrow, pray for an hour, start the prayer, and the rest of the words will follow. Pray to the god of Light, pray to the god of Healing, of Good and of the Sun, pray to the almighty Pelor, god of all those who walk under the shining rays of the sun. Pray to me, my cleric, and you shall be rewarded, bring forth my voice to others, and you shall ascend. Your name I choose: you are now known as Jeanne D'Albion, go forward, my child, and unite all under my banner" and as the voice said that, Jeanne knew she had to move: for the light of the dawn was still far away, but at least she had the feeling that, when the time would come for her prayers to rise, someone would actually answer her.

***Halkeginia-Academy of Magic-Couple of days later, Afternoon***

Arty felt it. Artos did so too.

_The fourth pebble, so soon?_

_Perfect: all is going according to the plan._

_We are nearly there..._

_It's going to be so much fun!_

Arty smiled then, as he caught the full blast of a small Lesser Acid Orb cast by Professor Colbert.

"Good! You're getting the hang of it" as he said that, he then added: "Though you might wish to remember that, differently from your magic type, there are things you need to be careful of. If you stop chanting a spell with your original magic, nothing happens, right?"

"Well, yes, nothing…happens" Colbert said, panting hard. It really wasn't easy making all those precise hand motions, specific words, and grabbing the careful and right amount of components, but he was getting faster at it.

"Well, if you are interrupted or lack concentration while casting one of these types of magic, trust me, things can get ugly, really fast. Your concentration is clearly superior to that of normal people, so you have yet to realize it, and maybe you will never see it, but when magic gets awry, and starts going mad, duck, run and cower in fear. Do not, and I will repeat myself again, do NOT attempt to control it, let it go. It might rain rotten apples or there might be ducks appearing out of thin air, but no matter what, do not attempt to fix the mistake, or it will simply worsen."

"I understand, but I don't get why rotten apples would make me cower in fear" Colbert asked puzzled.

"Well, because those are *some* of the effects possible, other are conjuring demons, devils, angels, bringing forth an explosion, losing a limb or two, having your sight stolen and the list is long, really long." As Arty finished explaining, Colbert gulped.

"However even knowing this, people do not certainly wait for Wizards and Sorcerers to cast their spells patiently, if they strike down the wizard or the sorcerer, the magic leaves without doing harm, so they always aim for them first" as he finished speaking, a voice interrupted him.

"What's a Sorcerer?" Louise asked, slowly moving forward with a strange orange thing in her hands, which seemed made like a sweater for Aboleths.

"It's a wizard, who has no need to study magic, because it is inherent to his soul, he just needs to self-discover it by meditation, and by revealing his inner self. It's something dangerous however, as many are actually the proof that demons, devils and outsiders can procreate with humans just fine: basically they tap onto their demonic heritage, or devil one, or extra-planar one and then cast spells. By the way, where's the kid Aboleth?" as he asked that, Louise stared at him with a perplexed expression, before handing the Aboleth sweater over to him.

"A gift for you! I have yet to see you wear something warm, so…I made it with my own hands!" and then she blushed furiously, before running away.

Professor Colbert stared at the scene with a small grin, before saying:

"If only I had your charm, I might not be still single at my age" as he said that, he kind of felt a little bit of envy in him, but just a bit.

"If you want, I can help you on that" Arty replied, staring back with a gentle smile at the professor, "There's a spell that can help couple bond, but it's pretty strong: once you start it cannot be stopped, so, do you wish to stop at the finding a girlfriend, or after the marriage?" as he asked that question, Colbert suddenly paled and then began shivering from the excitement.

"There exists such a spell! Please! Cast it on me, master!" as he finished speaking, Arty nodded and as his hand slightly touched Professor Colbert, the next moment, the Flame Snake began hurriedly departing towards the academy.

"Power of a suggestion spell" Arty muttered, the suggestion obviously being *Go and find the one you love*.

Then, with a wide smile, he spoke a couple of words, and the sweater adjusted itself to normal size, without the Aboleth-appendages and he put it on, making some slight adjustments.

_It's ORANGE._

_So what? It's a gift._

_IT'S ORANGE._

_What's your problem with Orange?_

_Last time somebody wore something orange, they blew up the lab and generated a reality rift!_

…_you never told me that._

_I too have things I don't want to share._

_Wait, you were the one wearing orange?  
Me? No! I'm a skull, how could I…_

_YOU WERE WEARING AN ORANGE HAT!_

_I don't know what you're talking about._

_Yes you do!_

_No I don't!_

_You…this is it, I'm having our death knights wear orange armor from now on._

As Artos yelled his utter pain and anguish in Arty's head, Arty himself moved slowly to where a white bearded man stood. He knew the face. He knew who he was, and he knew why he was here.

"My, you've gotten caught in your little act by the sun guy Artos dear" as it spoke it sent him shivers: yes, he hated it when Olidammara spoke to him with a feminine voice while using a male body.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Arty replied.

"Yeah, I thought that would be your reply" as the god chuckled in a really feminine way he shivered again.

"Now, however, the little bet is going to be how much you will last. What do you have on your side, huh? You've got nothing but a couple of apprentices, not even a wizard. You don't seem to have taken this seriously enough, so the other side is a bit angry. Do you want some help, honey? Do you want me to call some reinforcements on your side?"

"You may leave. I am not one who will bow to the will of the gods any longer." As he tried to leave, however, he was held to a stop by the sheer amount of Reverence, which the god itself cast upon him and his surroundings.

"You will bow or break, Artos, your impudence has gone unpunished long enough, when they will arrive, what are you going to do, alone?"

"What I do better, laughing mask, what I do better." And with that, the reverence shrug off Artos, as his will fought back the god's own.

"I hope you'll put up a good show, as a Demilich, not as this...meat puppet" Artos didn't turn around, he knew for a fact the god was already gone.

_Fifth pebble._

_Yes._

He moved swiftly towards the entrance of the dormitories for second years, where Louise was, still blushing and hugging her knees, obviously, in her room.

"Louise" he muttered to her, to which she looked at him, reddening even more.

"You like it?" she asked, giggling.

"Well, yes, I did have to…"

"You like it!" as she chirped that, she launched herself forward, to hug him.

Wait.

_Did she just…chirp?_

_I'M KILLING HIM/HER!_

_She chirped it._

"Is everything all right?"

"Yes! I just realized how much I love you, I love you Arty! Please…say that you love me too!"

"You are not in your correct state of mind, Louise" as he whispered that, he hand-waved her to sleep, once more. It would be easier that way, actually. If it weren't for the fact that someone actually knocked at the door.

"Louise, are you alright? There's something I want you to know" it was a female voice, but it wasn't Siesta's and it wasn't Kirche's or Tabitha's.

"Last night, when you returned and drank the wine on my table when I was with Guiche…outside in the courtyard…it was well…"

Arty much slowly opened the door, and the girl, the blond girl, whose name seemed to be Montmorency, stopped speaking midway, as in a corner of her mind something was telling her to run to safety as far away as possible.

"Let me guess: A love potion" Arty himself knew of them, but they usually hadn't this overly excessive effect, albeit thinking back it might have been because of the dilution.

_Fond memories, I'm sure they didn't even think it would have been possible: Take a city with love potions._

_They were the stupid ones not to check them._

"Yes…I'm sorry," she whimpered "it should only last six months to a year" she slowly added.

"Better than permanent effect I suppose" Arty replied shrugging.

"Wait, there's a permanent one?" the way she asked it made Arty raise an eyebrow, "Never mind! I'm sorry! Really! But I can't make you an antidote!"

"Why can't you?" Arty asked bemused. Not that he couldn't snap his fingers and be done with the problem. Remove curse, was among the spells he knew.

"Well…the tear of a water spirit is required, and they don't give those easily," as she said that, Arty raised an eyebrow.

"Water spirits, as in, they actually exist in Ragdorian Lake?"

"Well, yes they do, our family is contracted with them, so it's obvious they exist!" Montmorency replied, snapping at the familiar who had dared to believe they wouldn't.

"So it wasn't a myth. Good, now I can actually go there." As he said that, he looked behind him, where Louise was sleeping, "You, stay here and guard the girl. If she leaves the room by the time I'm back, you will cry until you have no tears left" and as he said that with a really convincing and menacing tone, Montmorency couldn't help but nod.

_We're bringing hell to the party, right?_

_No! Not hell or Limbo. _

_Why can't I be the one in charge? I love being me._

_I love being me too, you know?_

Arty stood in front of the academy's gates, and stared at the road in front of him, as the sun was slowly descending to leave the place to the night. Arty cracked his fingers, and then a steed appeared, as black as the night.

"Took you long enough," it teased the man, who laughed, and mounted the dark horse.

"Get moving Night," Arty replied suddenly serious, and without further warning, the Nightmare departed.

The steed flew through the night, galloping on shadows, clouds and air without a care if it could or not.

_So, the plan is simple: We get the spirit to side with us._

_Then we ask him to slow down the gods._

_So we can proceed with the pebbles._

_Right._

_It will probably be decided in Albion, right? When the princess invades._

_As good a battleground as any._

Nightmare was feeling weird, however. Sure, the master was the master, but while on his back, he started feel kind of weak. The master wouldn't weaken his best steed, so it had to do with the place his master was.

Ragdorian Lake stood between Gallia and Tristain, and as Arty actually stopped, he realized he wasn't alone there: two mages were fighting against the thing, but as one seemed to be using fire spells, while being circled with air bubbles, the other used ice javelins from a good distant.

When Arty descended from Nightmare, the horse was no longer, at all, a mighty steed, it was more the size of a pony, but it hadn't realized it yet, or maybe it didn't want to realize it.

The wizard was thinking, actually, about solving the problem the easy way: a couple of implosions and everything would be solved, but he realized as he moved closer that he could actually use this situation to his own advantage.

"Need a hand?" Now, the question usually gets you a yes, or a no statement, generally a yes if you're doing something hard to do alone, or a no if you don't want to be bothered, problem is if you're asked the question while fighting for your life against a water spirit, while said water spirit is fighting for his own life.

"No" Tabitha replied, not losing concentration.

"And you?" Arty asked the water spirit, who didn't bother to reply.

"Oh well, I'll have to make you both stop, then" and as he said that he whistled.

The first moment, they were fighting, the next, Tabitha and Kirche found themselves bound by chains and immobilized by magic near a tree, on the other, the water spirit found itself held down by another, enormous mass of water.

"This here is Aqueon, crusher of ships. Now Spirit, Talk with me or suffer the consequences of your idiocy" Arty smiled at what he presumed being the water spirits' face and for a second, the spirit stopped to think.

Aqueon, like under orders, grabbed a water hand from the water spirit and tore it clear from it, throwing it towards Arty, who grabbed it mid-air into a sphere of force.

"Who are you, being of wickedness!" the water spirit yelled, in utter pain, if pain could be felt by a being such as him.

"Good, we got off with the right foot then" Arty replied smiling gently, and clasping his hands together, "Aqueon, you may let the spirit go: it seems she understands the difference in strengths".

As the water mass dispersed, the spirit assumed a humanoid shape, and slowly descended in front of the Wizard, albeit it was missing an arm.

"Who are you?" It asked again.

"Someone who wishes to help you." Arty pointed the fact out a bit bored, actually.

"I do not trust your kind, you who reek of death." The water spirit didn't put much emphasis in her words, but she did make it known she was angered with the glint of her eyes, which slowly turned crimson.

"Ouch, that was offensive!" Arty replied feigning being offended, "you need something, yes? I can provide that."

"You read thoughts…does your evil know no bound?" now the spirit was once more assuming a menacing form.

"I'm doing this because I'm obliged to, so it's not actually *evil* I'm just, you know, *forced* by the rules, but do not get violent with me: I need your help to help yourself" as he said that, the water spirit stared at him, yet not answering him, but likely letting him speak more.

"Gods are coming, good gods, bad gods, neutral gods, they'll tear asunder this place and it will be a new battlefield, and those who survive will have no need for spirits of any sort. So, I'm offering you a choice: help me stall them." As he said that, Arty showed her a silent image with the symbols of all the gods, "These are their symbols: for any who does not wear them gives no benefit to the god he serves. Give the notice to all the other spirits and strengths of Halkeginia, if they come, they must be killed, immediately and with no remorse"

The spirit still kept silent, for a good bit, before whispering:

"Why?"

"Because if we do stall them, then help will come, and at least the battlefield will be equal." As he said that, Arty took out his best smile, as charisma and Loquacity both worked its way with the spirit.

"This is a dark deal, but you lie not…show me I can trust you, you who reek of death, kill the girls, and I will bring forth all the spirits to fight," as the spirit said that, Arty already knew what he had to do.

He turned towards the bound and asleep girls, Kirche and Tabitha, and moved closer to the, raising his right hand and smiling.

"It has been a pleasure knowing you, girls," as he said that, the spirit saw, it saw the girls, the trees next to them, the earth under them, disappear into nothingness, leaving behind only an empty chunk of earth.

"Disintegrate" Arty muttered, and then, with a bow towards the water spirit, he teleported back to the academy, as Nightmare's form had utterly been crushed by him syphoning out his arcane energies.

The spirit dispersed in the water, for he had to call forth his equals, and in doing so, didn't even realize that Arty had actually conned him in keeping one of his arms, he must have forgotten about it all together.

***Academy Garden, Dawn***

In the academy's garden, Tabitha woke up first, jumping forward staff in hand; just to find out she was being tightly held by two strong arms. She looked behind her, to find out a smiling Arty, holding her. The simple position she was in made her blush, like a raspberry, and as she found herself stumbling on the words to say, he whispered to her in a kind and gentle way.

"Charlotte…do you wish for your mother's curse to be removed?" and as he whispered that, he realized he had no need to act nice and gentle, he could have been the devil himself, for the girl would have accepted the deal never the less.

Love works that way, as do emotions, and feelings.

They blind people to the truth.

They make people stupid.

That much, as a human, he too didn't realize it, as a lich he began understanding it, but as a Demilich, he began using them to his advantage.

**Author's note:**

**Disintegrate isn't actually spoken by Arty, he was lying to the spirit. In truth it was a *circle of invisibility*+ Teleport on the two sleeping girl and a couple of trees.**

**Golgoth and Aqueon are simply Conjure Elemental Monolith spells. **

**The Cauchemar (Nightmare) is the fiery horse of the monster manual 1. It tastes like charred chicken however.**

**Blinded in a bolthole: the prince had to die…because it's a pebble! Another one! As for the *points* stop reading in my mind damn it! (about what point? I'll let you guess it)**

**Final notes:**

**To be forced to do evil is not an evil action di per se. This teaches us that yes, a Demilich can con every spell. Even Epic Ones he himself created.**

**Furthermore…every coin has three sides, not two.**


	9. Chapter 9: Swapping heads and skulls

Chapter Nine

Kirche was put to bed while Tabitha followed Arty all the way back into Louise's room, where Montmorency was waiting. The blond girl saw the wizard arrive together with the quiet blue haired girl, and with a strange transparent sphere, inside of which some sort of water, in the form of an arm, stood floating.

"What is that?" she queried slowly coming to a realization she didn't, quite actually, wish to be true.

"Well, I got myself a piece of her. That's a tear from a water spirit, right? A torn piece," as he said that he smiled gently, "rest assured though, I made no names, though I could go back and make one, if you don't get the antidote ready by tomorrow morning."

"But the sun is dawning soon!" She exclaimed, to which Arty stared at her with a sort of condolence-like stare, before whispering:

"Then I suppose you'll have to be quick about it…" before making a glass bottle appear out of nowhere, and filling it up with the *arm* made of water, delivering it to the girl and hushing her outside.

"Ask your questions Charlotte, I could read them out of your mind, but I suppose you'd like to ask them," Arty whispered, snapping his fingers to conjure the white door to his mansion, and inviting the girl inside.

Tabitha stood still for a moment, but clenching her staff tightly, walked inside, just to stop on the dirt road in front of her. She looked at the scenery with awe and admiration, as the garden seemed to bloom like it was spring, the sky was brightly lit, and the mansion in front of her rivaled the royal palace of Gallia itself.

"Who are you?" Charlotte asked, following the man through the garden to the mansion's doors.

"I'm but a Wizard: a really powerful Wizard, an utterly kind person, a badass king, all in one tightly package of awesomeness," as he said that, he turned around to smile at her once more, before leading her through the mansion's hallways, till they reached the corridor which held his most prized paintings…the fake ones.

Sceneries of bucolic nature depicted him nurturing animals, helping people, defeating armies of demons and monsters of dubious nature. Some of them had actually been gifted to him by anonymous individuals of the city of Necros, just to see if, as a Lich, he would show some signs of joy or laughter. It didn't work. He had however restrained his Awakening spell to only humans or elves, and no longer did that on halflings and gnomes.

"Fakes," Tabitha muttered looking at them, which earned her a clap from Arty.

"Well done. Now we can go on to business: I would like you to become my friend, in exchange, I'll free your mother from her curse, and give her back her senses and, if you so wish, even bring her back on the throne of Gallia," saying that, he had moved closer to the blue haired girl, who stared at him with a doubtful face.

"Oh, I'm sure that in a couple of years you'd be splendid, but no, I am not that debased. You're too young. Really, too much." As he said that with a chuckle, Tabitha actually blushed. "Well, if you want we can keep this conversation on a talking-thinking basis, I'm sure eventually it will become natural to address me by voice. Cup of coffee?" as he asked that, a ghostly butler appeared with two cups filled with the steaming liquid. "Do you want milk in it? Or honey? Sugar and honey? You've got a sweet tooth my fair lady," as he said that with another chuckle, another ghostly butler appeared, carrying a set of chairs and a small table, on top of which stood a basket, filled with biscuits of various forms and shapes.

"Why am I doing this? Well, you've got a friend already, haven't you?" Tabitha stared at him with a *not fooling anyone* face.

"Fine: I might have a need later on for a favor or two, but think about it: your sane mother that recognizes you and not a doll...man that had to be such a powerful poison…what did she drink?" Arty stared at her dumbstruck as Tabitha grabbed her staff aiming it at him. Didn't matter she was actually seated at the table, with Arty on the other side, and the biscuits that looked so delicious were in the middle of them.

"I'm sorry girl, but I can't stop: I simply read what you're thinking right now. Think of something else like ponies, dragons…wait, is that a pink dragon I'm seeing there?" Tabitha blushed slightly.

"Yes, I get it you don't like talking about it, well then, do we *have* a deal? Your family will be on the throne of Gallia by after-tomorrow, your mother will sit on it, and you'll become my friend, not the first of this world, but maybe the third or the fourth." As he said that, offering his hand to her, Tabitha stared at the hand, biting her lips hard. She had to decide, didn't she? Why however, did it seem so hard to?

***Louise's dream***

It was dark; dark and damp. Heck, it seemed that Artos had lived most of his life in dark and damp places. Like a mole, or a worm. She sighed looking at the man's back, as he made his way into this *Underdark* place he had been so keen on going with an expedition of twenty dwarves. To think he too was disguised as one thanks to magic was utterly funny, she still like him lots more, even when using disguises, he was so cool! He was the only one with a black beard, but he did pretty much fine on his own, because all a dwarf had to do to be a dwarf was yell "For Moradin!" or place the name of the dwarven god in a sentence, every two, to be considered trustworthy. Among others they acted all silent and serious, but once alone, as Louise realized, they were some sort of gang of best friends, even if it was the first time they had actually met each other.

Their songs in dwarven tongue were unluckily for Louise, utterly ear-piercing, still, it really looked like Artos was genuinely having fun with them, but this time around the pink haired girl kept her cool and an analyzing gaze on: she knew something was going to turn strange soon, furthermore she also had to memorize as much of Artos' dwarven face as possible, he simply was too handsome even in that form!

She had that feeling that the dreams either tried to charge her head-on on horrible things or give her weeks of rest. This did seem to her like a straight ahead charge for something horrible, so this time, she intended to be prepared.

"How long did you walk in here!" she muttered walking next to the dwarf-Artos, "It's like we walked for hours, and hours...I don't mind as long as I'm with you my love, but…" she pouted, before giggling, she could call him all sorts of names in here, and he wouldn't know.

"Hey Torderk…where's Orfrid?" a dwarf suddenly asked to another.

"Wasn't he in the back rows, singing that song about fire and steel?" another dwarf replied in the middle of the column.

"Well, he's stopped singing. Orfrid!" yelled another one.

"He's gone! Together with Ulfgar!"

"Oh for the love of Moradin! Martark, Gorz and Artur, go look for him!" as Louise realized, Artur was quite actually Artos himself, who, wielding a dagger in his hand, looked more like the nifty rogue than a warrior.

The three dwarves moved, Martark was first in line, a sort of steel clad dwarf with an axe and a shield as big as him, standing comfortably inside a full plate armor, next to him stood Gorz, wielding an axe the double his size in two arms, a chain shirt protecting his vitals, and a pair of axes on his back, in case the first one wasn't a solution. Artur came behind, out of all of them; he was maybe the less armed for the situation, with but a dagger and a vest.

"You meanie! Always sending Artur!" Louise pouted to the column leader, even though it was useless.

As they slowly crept their way backwards, from the tunnel they came, Artur coughed once, and the group stopped.

"Next to the rock" he muttered in a guttural tone, Louise had begun understanding the dwarven tongue, now, and the more she heard of it, the more the sentences became complete, as she watched Martark move closer, it came as a surprise when a bundle of spider's webs was brought back into the middle of the group. From it, pieces of metal could be seen, and Louise held a hand in front of her mouth, as Gorz grabbed one of his smaller axes to remove from its silky prison the already dead dwarf.

"What monster could silently best a dwarf?" Gorz muttered.

"Not a monster…a failure. Drider! Failure of the goddess Lolth! You're weak pathetical existence ends now, weakling!" Artur yelled out loud, earning himself looks of shock from the dwarves and from Louise. Why was he giving away his position?

_Because he's not doing it for no reason, obviously! _As Louise thought that, she wondered why the other two dwarves hadn't made him silent, did they just naturally accept the fact that it was in their interest not to? How could they have that sort of sixth sense? It was like seeing fellow soldiers, no matter what, they'd stick together.

"What's a Drider? Nothing you can't squat, right…darling?" Louise muttered, blushing heavily as she tried new nicknames for her *true love*, before a loud screech made her turn around to witness what the monster actually was: on the upper part stood the torso of a dark elf, with hair white as snow, while on the lower part stood eight thin legs, those of a spider, like the rest of his lower body was resembling.

It stood taller than the dwarves, who didn't seem in the slightest worried about it, instead as Gorz charged the thing first, he overpowered it sending it on the ground, no matter its eight legs or strong muscles, and then Martark swiftly moved in for a killing blow. It couldn't have been more than half a minute, yet they had brutally and efficiently killed such a beast.

"Thought so," Martark muttered, "It would have been too good a day if Artur had suddenly gotten mad. Instead no, he had to keep his sanity yet once more" as Gorz chuckled, Artur simply moved to the back of Martark and gave him a swift hit on the back of the head.

"I always know what I'm doing. I've never gone insane once" as he replied that, Gorz looked at Martark and Martark looked back at Gorz.

"Remind me, Gorz, that time he saw that stupid bauble…"

"That was *not* a stupid bauble, it was a necklace of Fire balls fourth!" as Artur muttered that, the two other dwarves chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah, you and your love for magical trinkets. If I hadn't seen you chug down five barrels of dwarven ale I'd have called you an elf" as Gorz finished saying that, the three of them began walking back towards the rest of the column.

The more they moved however, the less signs of the dwarves' passage they actually saw, until their tracks abruptly came to a halt right at an intersection.

"I don't like this," as Gorz whispered this, Artur made a single step backwards, and without the two dwarves seeing, he became invisible.

"Artos…once more? I like your cool attitude, but this is a bit…" Louise whispered to the invisible mage with a saddened tone, "I mean, they do seem to know your other self well enough…are you going to betray them too? I know you wouldn't betray me, right? I won't betray you, ever. Pinky swear." she was starting to think about how much the wizard had descended into darkness, both metaphorically speaking and realistically speaking, when she saw two shadows move from the sides of the cavern, decapitating the dwarves with clean strikes.

Artos kept his silence and his cool, and with a flick of the wrist, a strange glitter descended into the area. The figures, humanoid, appeared outlined by it and stared at each other in surprised, before a muttering brought them into a general direction to strike once more…too late.

Three scorching rays swiftly departed from Artos' hands, burning them both to a crisp of charred meat, before the wizard himself moved closer, and began scavenging on the dead bodies of what looked like two fully fledged dark elves.

"Stupid drows," Artos whispered, "couldn't avoid having fun now huh?" and that was when the lights went out in Louise's dream. When it returned, Artos was gagged, his arms tied to a rock pillar, as a really fat and ugly Drow stood on a throne made of gold.

"So, who are you?" the drow matron asked, as two male drows took their scimitars, placing them on Artos' neck before removing his gag.

Artos kept being silent, however, which did bring a slight look of disdain on the dark elf's face.

"I asked you a question, half," As it muttered that with anger, the drow matron pointed at a pile of beards at her feet, "These here are the beards of those stupid dwarves, who are now my slaves. I already have a couple of halfs however, so I don't actually need you."

"LET ARTOS GO!" Louise yelled trying to run over to punch the matron in the nose, but realizing that it wasn't possible, she started muttering curses one after the other.

"You want the command word" Artos muttered simply, to which the matron's eyes showed a slight glint of interest.

"So you're not stupid it seems, well, how about it? Freedom can be yours, for but a word" as she said that, Artos smiled back at her.

"Trust no drow that you haven't bound in chains," he whispered back, "if you'll swear it on your goddess, however…" to those words, a set of hisses and angry faces showed all around the hall, as drows of various sexes and ages were putting their hands to their weapons.

"Silence!" the matron snapped once, and every noise, even the slightest, suddenly stopped, "You think you can act all high and mighty, wizard? We who follow the word of our supreme goddess Lolth will achieve greater heights than all your magic will ever account to!" as she sputtered that, a loud set of claps echoed through the halls from the drows.

"Oh…really? Then why are you in such a hurry to *use* a wizard object? Lolth forgot the holiday gifts?" as he said that with a snicker the matron grew cold, Louise couldn't help but chuckle however.

"You offended the goddess, why shouldn't I kill you?" as she asked that, she raised a hand, ready to use her thumb to decide the life or death of the wizard.

"If you harm him I'm going to kill you all!" Louise muttered, angry as much as she could actually be.

"Well, because for starters, I know the command word for the sphere of destruction to tick off. Secondly, your second in law hates you. So…guess where that puts us?" as Artos said that with a bigger than ever smile, the matron frowned for a moment, not understanding. Then, a sudden realization dawned on her.

"You never came here before…how can you say these things Artos?" Louise muttered, was he a mind reader? Wait, no, it couldn't be… "You're BLUFFING FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES!" Louise yelled utterly astonished by such poker face.

"She's not going to…" buy it.

"So it was true, those rumors on you and that servant girl" the matron snarled to another dark elf, who looked utterly terrified, "KILL HIM!" as the matron yelled her order, pointing at the man, he was literally lynched by the mob of other drows.

"Just how? Why? How did you know?" Louise whispered.

"How did you know?" The matron actually asked, looking at the wizard, who smiled back.

"Wizard Trick. Now, can we discuss business? I can offer you five more traitors if you so wish…all I ask for are freedom and my stuff, plus thirty-eight hours of protection, provided by your house, in the Underdark. In exchange…I'll give you the command words for TWO spheres…and the location of the second, obviously".

"Why would I? I can simply torture you for the information, and having a wizard free to do as it pleases in my home is something only a stupid matron would consent to." the matron replied, pointing out what looked like a flaw to the wizard's plan.

"Testing my wits? You know perfectly well that torture is unreliable and would take a long time; a week if you've got a pretty skilled torturer, and even then, lies would certainly slip through, furthermore, why would I damage you? I'm but a wizard: a poisoned arrow through my neck would mark my doom, would it not? On the other hand, you just wait thirty eight hours, hours I'll spend in a room of your choice, with my stuff, and with whatever mean of security to prevent my escape in it, but free to do as I please...and then voilà, you get all the traitors, and the magic baubles you so much would like to use to crush the…"

"Fine!" the matron roared, interrupting him.

"Let him go, for the next thirty-eight hours, by the will of the great goddess Lolth, he is to remain unscathed in our home. If any will harm him, then the goddess herself will exact punishment!" as the chains on Artos' wrists were removed, the wizard massaged his sore arms and stretched a bit, before smiling gently, as a scruff guard handed him back over all his stuff, which he went through before nodding.

"Good, it's all my stuff…except the wizard's book." As he pointed that out, the matron shrugged.

"It wasn't among your stuff when you came here, so I am not responsible for it…then guards, bring my guest to the special room, he'll spend the thirty eight hours completely alone then, devoid of food and water, since it would disturb him too much," as the matron said that, smiling, four guards actually moved by pushing, a bit less than gently, the wizard into a rock room, no more than three meters per three, with but a metal door and no windows at all.

"So, it's a prison cell: Arty, you bit off more than you could chew", as Louise muttered that, thinking about how most probably he'd wait in there in silence and then be forced to deliver his info, and probably be freed in death, even she realized how it would be easy to plant such a ruse!

"But I'll be with you in here Arty, don't worry, I still love you even if you make mistakes some time" she added, trying her best to give him a kiss on the cheek of the lost in thoughts wizard.

Artos simply sat down, legs crossed, and from his sack he removed a small metallic box, which seemed utterly simple and unworthy of notice. He grabbed a small blade, and after cutting his right wrist he began inscribing arcane runes, one after the other, on it, while muttering words which held no meaning to Louise. Though somewhere, somehow, she realized that was a mixture of Infernal, Abyssal, and Draconic mixed with a Celestial word every now and then, all bound and coupled with another tongue she couldn't get her hands on. AS he worked and muttered he kept on staring silently at the box, the box which Louise felt familiar, where had she seen it before? She couldn't remember, maybe he had it on him? In one of his pockets?

Slowly, the surroundings of the room darkened: to Louise it was a bit strange, since the room di per se had no lights at all, but she had gotten the hunch that she saw what Artos himself was seeing or believing to be seeing, so it looked like somehow his vision or his mind was getting smaller and smaller.

Suddenly, the only thing visible was the box and the wizard holding it, and as the last face of the metal cube was inscribed in blood, Artos muttered the final words. Nothing seemed to have changed, actually. Yet Artos stood there, tranquil enough to lay back down, placing the strange thing on his chest, and slowly gripping it firmly with both his hands.

Louise stared as the metal cubicle shined brightly, before assuming a slightly glowing hue, as Artos' body began to rot away. She didn't scream, she thought it had to be an illusion prepared for the drows. Maybe he was going to fool them, and get out of there; Artos was filled with surprises after all, that was why she loved him.

That's why she stared, as the body of the wizard rotted beyond normal recognition, as his skin durned purple and dark from the bright pink it was, as his nose caved in and some of his teethes fell out, as his eyes fell into his orbits, replaced by two dark red glints, as his robes assumed an used and old form, centuries old.

_He has a sort of royal appearance, even in that grim form_, Louise thought.

Then, he stood up, after what seemed hours, and waited.

Louise too, waited with him, in the silence that followed, in the dark room which suddenly seemed to sprout to light, she waited with the illusion of a rotting Artos. For it had to be an illusion, right? At that moment though, she realized where she had seen the box: it was under the skull, when she had kissed the skull to make it become her familiar. It was under there, glinting and shining. It was at that moment that she awoke.

***Out of Louise's dream***

"Wake up Louise!" Montmorency yelled at the pink-haired girl, all flustered, as she was holding a sort of cup filled with a bubbling substance. The sun was just about to rise above the academy's wall, and that was what the academy considered as the time to have the student's breakfast, and thus, dawn.

"I was dreaming, stupid Monmon," Louise muttered back, standing up still drowsy, "Where is Arty? Huh? Where is he?" she asked once more, looking around the room with a bit more of hurry, "Where have you hidden him Monmon!"

"Drink this, Louise, please," the blond girl pleaded, handing over the cup and the antidote to the love potion.

"It smells awful, I don't want to!" Louise exclaimed, shaking her head; just where did her beloved go now?

"It's a gift from Arty to make you feel better!" Montmorency snapped at her, at her wits end.

"Why didn't you say that sooner?" as Louise stared at the blond girl, she grabbed the cup and voided it in one single gulp.

"Bleah! It's awful…it's…" then she reddened. Blushed furiously. Finally, she stared at Montmorency and murmured:

"Monmon…I…"

"I'm going on a date with Guiche now, see you!" Montmorency quickly said running out of the pink-haired girl's room, heck, she had kept her promise to the man!

Louise stared around for a moment, recollecting herself, and finally, as she made her mind to accept the fact that nothing actually happened, she realized the white door which usually led to Artos' mansion had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, moving near it, she felt a slow set of murmurs, echoing around the perfectly normal white door, except for the fact that it had appeared out of nowhere, obviously. Curious to explore Arty's mansion for the first time in a while, she set inside, hoping that the ghostly butlers actually were as nice as the master of the mansion himself.

A ghostly butler appeared just after the first steps had been taken by Louise on the road of the garden that, as she knew, was part of the mansion. It gestured her to follow him, and carefully they made their way inside the house, which, as Louise saw the interior actually with more calm, looked even bigger than the outside. Space was relative in this place, it seemed, as a small door from one side turned into a massive oaken portcullis on the other, as small closets revealed enormous pools, which had a set of door which led into other parts of the house, like another garden, a kitchen with ghostly butlers working around, pet sharks and similar. She actually took some time to register some of the paintings on the walls, or the tapestries, or the fact that there seemed to be no fashion sense at all, but a simple yet effective rule: To be practical.

Even if it meant a pool filled with sharks roaming around while chocolate cakes seemed to fly around, or a room filled with nothing but cushions and comfortable sofas.

She decided not to query on that stuff which clearly showed a little *mad* side of Arty, and finally, after what had looked more of a guided tour of the house than a *Follow me to the master's side* thing, the ghostly butler stopped in the middle of a hallway, filled with bucolic natures of various sorts. Giggling, even laughter could be heard coming from half the hallway, where, squinting her eyes before dashing off quickly in that direction, stood sitting and happily drinking coffee with biscuits both Tabitha and Arty.

"What…"_ madness is this?_ Louise had wished to query but stopped, as Tabitha was actually laughing, smiling, and…speaking?  
"Arty! That wasn't a joke meant for a lady! Seriously!" as Tabitha herself spoke, in a more vivid way than before, Louise's foundation on reality crumbled. She had to be dreaming, obviously, she had to be actually brain dead or something for her to see Tabitha…speak like that? Really?

"What? It's true! Oh Louise! Listen to this joke and tell me if it's meant or not for a lady." As Arty actually saw Louise, he waved at her, and a ghostly butler made another chair appear, maybe from thin air, to bring one more seat to the table. Louise sat, a bit dumbstruck, as Arty began cracking a joke about a sailor. Sailors and farmers and ho's. By the end of it, Louise was blushing crimson, and sputtering:

"T…THAT'S UNMORAL! FILTHY!" as she bit down hard on a biscuit, they actually seemed to replenish themselves every now and then.

"See! I told him and he wouldn't believe it" Tabitha pointed out, chuckling.

Tabitha had just chuckled; it was something that Louise couldn't have thought possible.

"Hey now. This joke was told to me by the most refined lady ever." A certain captain of a certain pirate ship with whom he had a travel agreement. Plus the supply routes. That was centuries before however, and she had long been buried, and then raised as the undead scourge of the seas. She had actually liked it so much she kept pestering Artos about eventual marriage proposal *until Life does us apart*.

"I doubt that, but…" as Louise muttered that, she moved slowly closer to Arty's face, staring at it with intent, before touching his cheek, even pinching it, with her left hand. It was warm. It was alive.

"You alright Louise?" Arty asked, curious.

"Maybe you had a biscuit crumb on your cheek" Tabitha suggested, politely finishing the tea, before staring at Arty with an expecting look.

"Oh right. Louise, how much would you like a quick travel to Gallia?" as Arty asked that with a smile, the pink-haired girl blushed, was he thinking about eloping?

"I…I don't know…I mean" as Louise stuttered, Arty laughed again.

"Oh come on, just a quick trip to near Ragdorian lake, a fast flying to the castle of Gallia, a swift revolution, and we can crown Charlotte's mother as queen," as he said that, all that Louise registered was Ragdorian lake, which was famous after all as a place for couples to confess. So, when she realized the rest of his words, she had already nodded.

"Excellent! I told you she would have agreed," as he stated that, Tabitha nodded, slightly bowing her head to Louise.

"I thank you Louise de la Vallière, for your kind decision"

"Wh…what is going on? Can't you explain for once?" as Louise asked that, Arty sighed, smiling tenderly at the girl, before looking at Tabitha, who nodded to give confirmation.

"Well, Tabitha here is actually the daughter of the wife of the younger brother of the present king of Gallia, Charlotte Helene de Orleans" as he said that, he grabbed a round cookie.

"Problem was when her grandfather died; the kingdom was divided over who should rule. Many favored her father, and for that…he had to die for Joseph to assume the throne" that said, he snapped the cookie in two perfect symmetrical halves.

"But you can't go around spinning revolutions!" Louise yelled at her familiar, _just what was he thinking?_

"My mother was turned mad after a failed attempt to turn me mad," Tabitha, or better yet, Charlotte, spoke with her voice slightly trembling, "I was forced to become a Chevalier of Gallia, and be assigned dangerous and suicidal missions, while my mother lived mad and practically imprisoned in our residence: If she is brought back to sanity, assassination attempts will brew again, unless she's in a condition to defend herself from such attacks, that's why I need Arty's strength...and yours too" as the quiet little girl left its place to a fierce temperament, Louise clenched her fists, looking at Arty, before muttering:

"They'll have dragon knights, and dragons, and fleets, and nobles won't simply back down on Joseph since some actually planned for him to take the throne" as she said that, Arty smiled back at her.

"Don't worry, I've got a plan. All I need is for you to be right next to me."

"But I'm a La Vallière; they might think of it as an action from Tristain and the queen, furthermore there's already a revolution in Albion…Gallia declared neutrality on that matter," Louise retorted, albeit she had slightly blushed at him saying that he needed her for once.

"I'll make you invisible, and when I'll go there, I'll go with my crest. The royal crest of Terenestia's kingdom of Necros," as he said that, a ghostly butler actually arrived with a banner, depicting a clawed skeleton hand wielding a staff, which sent sparks like depicting thunders all around.

"It's a bit broody, but it depicts undying resolve, no matter what, no matter how, when or who." As he said that with a wide smile, Louise nodded. So the people of his kingdom would fight to the death and beyond it seemed, maybe they just had really strong wills.

***Necros***

"Soldiers!" a massive juggernaut of hardened black steel yelled, atop a stallion of pure blackness, with red fiery eyes. The soldiers, a mass of equally clad in steel Death knights, roared in unison to their captain, the only one on top of a Nightmare, while the others were on skeleton horses. Yards away, a group of skeletons riding skeletal horses stood by in wait, staring in front of them with their empty eye sockets, waiting for order from their necromancer, a frail looking red haired man with blue eyes and a really pale skin, who, quivering in coughs, even though he was heavily covered in furs and vests, was staring at the battlefield in front of him.

Their troops where the shockwave platoon, whose only orders where to wait for the signal to come, and then, after the skeleton riders would charge straight in, with their lances, the Death knights would follow suite with their heavy armor, opening up a hole in the flank of any enemy idiot enough to stand its ground.

The banner of Necros swayed slowly to the wind that day, and as the captain looked at it, being held firmly by the banner holder of their group, he couldn't help but smile, which came more as a smirk to him than anything else. The hand of death would force its way through steel, bones and magic if need was, for they were the legions of the dead, and nobody would stop them from their purpose, steer them away from the path set forward by their great ruler, who would soon ascend to Godhood without fail!

"Remember the iron will of our ruler! IN POWER LIES FREEDOM! From the laws of man and from the laws of the gods!" as the soldiers roared once more, they began batting their swords against their shields, making a repetitive sound, which echoed through the fields till where the frontal front was engaged.

There, in the midst of screaming soldiers from one side, zombies fling forward biting, slashing, gnawing away what they could, while many weapons impacted harmlessly, other were of more debilitating nature to them. A lucky hit brought a beheaded zombie to resort to claws to actually kill an unlucky footman, who could have earned himself a swifter death had he not struggled. A skeleton archer was flinging arrows, which hit their marks nine times out of ten, and the tenth being the arrows harmlessly finishing into the undead flesh of a comrade, who wouldn't care at all about the poison smeared on the arrow's tip.

All in all, their commander was please, sightseeing the thing from a small hill, the mummy lord raised a hand, and the skeleton cavalry charged through first, preventing the few that had actually placed a pike defense to do much, and then, once the coast was clear for the heavy hit, the Death knights charged straight through, maiming friends and foes on their path towards the center of the battlefield, while the necromancer, staying back, was muttering foul curses to resurrect the deceased to their cause. New brothers arrived every time.

Only the left flank gave him problems: a small group of mercenary adventurers had been used to reinforce it, and being that also the side of the clerics, it proved especially hard to do damage, when they could be turned to dust in the blink of a turn attempt.

The mummy pondered for a moment, before nodding to the zombie next to him, who sleazily bowed and, reaching behind the mummy lord, waved at the contraptions on the back.

The trebuchet and the catapults made of living flesh, created deep within Necros, fired corpses filled with negative energy, unhallowed objects, and generally unholy energy in whatever form they could manage to charge and send forward, to the receiving end. As the turning attempts became weaker, the clerics soon decided to run, except the few of Heironeus, the god of Valor, also known as *The Idiot* by all the evil folks.

"That's why they're nicknamed idiots: they should run like the others the bloody fouls!" yelled the sleazy zombie, who seemed like rot had yet to take its toll.

"Remind me who you are…" the mummy lord pondered.

"Bowood: new guy from the other dimension," the zombie replied, "the one your mummy-ness has decided to make a mummy soon."

"Oh yes…stop speaking so much." As the mummy lord said that, Bowood's tongue suddenly was pulled out by the bandaged fist of another mummy.

"Now…let us move and guard our ground," as the mummy lord said that, he and his brethren charged through the remaining forces, who, stricken by an unholy fear, began their run, just to be cut in the back by the Death knights, who had the speed of their horses as an advantage.

When pursuit was over, the Necros banner holder descended from his stead, and, planting the banner on the ground, a series of screams began to be heard all around the group of death knights.

"Remove your helm soldier!" the captain yelled, and, as the blond hair and blue eyes, albeit paled, of the ex-crown prince of Albion were shown, the captain smiled:

"So you know how to wield a blade don't you? Good, keep that up and maybe you'll get your wand back," as he said that with a wicked grin, Wales bowed his head, moving his right hand over where his heart would have been, as a salute.

"At least you know your place," the captain muttered, hoping he could catch the fresh recruit in a faux pas, soldiers couldn't speak unless ordered to, and all they could do was roar their consent to whatever words the captain yelled at them.

Wales would never admit it, but something was still fighting the fact that he shouldn't be bowing to the man, but fighting to get back to Henrietta's side, in one way or the other…they had to be warned of the monster that was on their side.

They had to be!

As his head was lowered, he saw how the ground itself was turning to a dull gray, as the banner served also to corrupt the earth on which it stood, turning the normal grass into a sort of grave soil, that made the undead on it stronger, faster, and harder to *turn* as some necromancer had mentioned to them before sending them out.

They no longer drew breath, or needed to eat, but they had to stir clear of places basked in holiness, unless they had been ordered, or were near a banner of unholy, the type that he had been tasked to protect with his very own unlife. Destroying those made it easier for the enemy's clerics, strange spell casters whose faith made them the bane of undead, or their helpers, to turn or rebuke them, and actually made them easier to destroy.

There was no wounded state for them, no loss from bleeding: they were either destroyed in dust or fighting. The difference in their abilities could only be outmatched by at least double their forces, and a large contingent of good clerics, who, however, were severely lacking on the island, which had been nearly all conquered by that *man*, except the lush forest of the elves, guarded by the druids and their trees, moving and not, and the fierce temperament of the dwarves and their god Moradin, who valued steel, metal, and strength, but mostly protection and honor, it was only a matter of time. Elves and dwarves would eventually grow weary of the fight, even if it would take centuries, it didn't matter; they had all the time of the world.

***Halkeginia-Albion floating continent***

"May the great god Pelor bless you," as the red haired girl spoke with gentleness, the wound which had left him bedridden for years, and which no amount of water magic could have healed, suddenly closed up, neatly.

"I…must thank you," the old noble had tried it all to get the old infected wound to be closed and cleaned, and had lived in pain for years, as whatever curse was on the dagger that hit him was, it had been too strong to be removed. Yet this girl dressed in simple peasant clothing, who had begun being called a saint, had closed the wound in a moment.

"The only thanks should go towards the god Pelor, the god of the Sun, of Good and of Healing. Pray to him at dawn and at midday, when the sun is the brightest, that is all I ask." As she said that, smiling sweetly, she bowed her head courteously, and the old noble nodding ordered a servant to bring the girl out.

Not before having donated to her church, wherever it was and whatever it was, a bit of gold that, him being old, would have been shared among his bloody relatives sooner or later, and he hated his relatives.

"Pelor, huh? Might as well try," he muttered.

Outside, the *saint*, Jeanne, moved into the street cradled with refugee from many country places burned to the ground, either by the Reconquista faction, or by the ex-royalty, who had now been removed. The people were suffering daily, and she did all that she could to ease their pain, asking for donations to the rich, but never from the poor. It was her duty to spread the words of Pelor, and as she did, she could feel her faith grow and her powers along with it.

"Saint Jeanne!" a boyish voice yelled to her, as a boy not much older than her waved at the girl passing by, who stopped to look at the war orphan, who strangely seemed to carry some sort of sword in his right hand and second rate armor.

"Cristopher?" she queried, curiously moving close to the boy, who seemed, now that she could concentrate a bit better, surrounded by a strange, yet palpable, aura of some sort. It was a good aura, however, and she thus decided to trust her senses. Furthermore Cristopher had been a sweet boy, helping the first time around the city, albeit at that time he hadn't been dressed in something more different than the sea urchins used to wear.

"Saint Jeanne, I have heard the call! The call from Lord Heironeus, god of valor! He told me I'll be one of his first paladins! I was hoping I would find you here, I must say, for there is something we must absolutely discuss," as he spoke, she realized that, etched on his shield, was a symbol of a hand wielding a sword, and she couldn't help but feel a bit frustrated; why didn't he join the Pelor faithful ranks? Who was this Heironeus?

"I understand Cristopher…what was so urgent you had to search for me in such a hurry?" as she asked that, she realized he was pretty much sweating a bit.

"Not here, Saint Jeanne, there are some people we need to meet up with at the *Roasted Pork* Inn, in Londinium. I'm here to be your escort until we reach the capital" as he said that, Saint Jeanne's eyes bulged: the capital? She had never been in the capital, and neither had Cristopher, yet he didn't seem afraid at all of the trip, from the city of Hamlet to the capital it would have been a harsh trek of at least a month by foot.

"Why should I follow you to Londinium, Cristopher? There are so many wounded here…"

"Because we must meet with other there, as the lord of valor, Heironeus, told me, and together, we must strike the darkness that is growing in the heart of Halkeginia, before it's too late." As he said that with a grim voice, he suddenly stared in front of him, looking puzzled.

"Saint Jeanne, there are evil persons coming this way." As he muttered that, he moved swiftly in front of the saint, and as he lifted his shield, he caught just in time a pair of crossbow darts directed at the cleric.

Jeanne screamed from fear, since someone was actually attempting to take her life, in bright light, in the middle of a busy street!

"We missed dear brother," snarled a strange canine voice, as two strange figures, covered in big, yet dirty and stained clothing, moved into the street, as the people began running away.

"We don't have time, brother. Kill." As the other said that, they both launched themselves forward, ranting in a strange guttural voice words Cristopher and Jeanne couldn't understand, but one word, one word the paladin of Heironeus did, and for that word, he charged sword in hand.

"Erythnul's followers WILL BE CRUSHED!"

As he yelled that name, his sword flashed brightly, as it broke through the first's enemies dagger like they were of butter, and not iron, and slashing deep into its chest, even though under the vests some sort of leather armor was seen.

The second however took that occasion to move to the side of Cristopher, trying to aim for a weak joint on the side, but the armor on the paladin's body deflected it.

As Cristopher bashed the first creature with his shield, the second foul's spawn jumped backwards just in time to avoid the blade, but not a hit on the head from Jeanne's staff.

"Take this vile person!" she said, as she did her best to hold at least one of the two away from her partner.

The wounded one made a step backwards, throwing what looked like a sort of red colored vial against the two, but hitting his friend in the meantime because of the range of the explosion, that followed once the vial broke. Taking that instant, Cristopher charged once more, driving the tip of his sword straight through the weakened creature, killing it before turning around, just in time to see Jean getting wounded to the side, her vest not able to do much against an iron dagger. He roared once more as he charged, and with a swift strike, beheaded the other assassin wannabe.

As the adrenaline slowly left them, they stared in surprise at the corpses: they weren't human, but some sort of monsters. However they weren't orcs or trolls: they seemed like a mix between a hyena and a human, and even in death, they held a wicked grin.

"Cristopher…what are those? Why did you scream against a certain Erythnul?" Jeanne whispered, but soon felt her hand being roughly taken by the man, and brought by force with him away from the scene.

"We need to move quickly: listen," as he said that, he was moving towards the gates of the town, "as there are good gods, there are evil ones. As a paladin, I can sense evil in men and creatures alike, but more than that, I was told what to look out for, and what symbols to be wary of: Erythnul, Hextor, Nerull are the worst and the last one is the direct arch nemesis of Pelor, while the second is the arch nemesis of the Lord of valor. The first one, instead, is the god of slaughter, needless slaughter and blood."

Jeanne couldn't help but shiver, making mental prayers to her god, Pelor, to shine the way for her…she had been *an orphan* before being a saint, and she knew, just like Cristopher, that they were in that situation because of needless slaughter in the war.

"Let's go to Londinium quickly, then" she whispered, following the *paladin*. She had to ask him what he meant, though, and if he could teach her more about the gods.

***Halkeginia-Ragdorian lake***

Louise had barely agreed to go near Ragdorian Lake, on the other side, past the border and towards Tabitha's residence, only because giving back the senses to a mad woman after years and giving Tabitha some happiness was fine with her. It did break one of the rules of her family house, but she was kind of thinking it didn't count as such a horrible thing as starting a revolution, or even winning one for all she knew of Arty's plans. However she still felt a horrible sixth sense that something horrible was going to befall her soon, as she watched Arty move in front of Tabitha's mother, and for the first time, actually chant a spell, adding to the strange words in a language she suddenly realized she could understand, being draconic, precise hand movements. Tabitha watched in silence by the side of the room, not daring to move for the moment, but a small glint of hope in her eyes was all.

"_Mind, matter, thought and change, past, present, future and self. Bring back what was; erase what isn't meant to be" _

She yet didn't realize the purpose of the spell, but she did come to see the change take place immediately afterwards. Tabitha's or better yet Charlotte's mother suddenly turned around, to face her actual daughter, and not the doll she was holding in her arms, and muttered a single word that sent the blue haired girl straight into her arms.

"Charlotte?"

"Mother!" Tabitha exclaimed as an answer, tears of joy running down her cheeks, as Arty took silent steps backward, gently escorting Louise out of the room to leave the two alone.

"The Madame is back?" Percerine, the butler of the family, asked Arty, the man he had doubts about from the very first moment he had stepped inside the residence, claiming he could heal the Madame. Yet, as Arty simply nodded, the old butler couldn't help it but hug the wizard hard enough to make him wheeze, before running off to prepare something to eat for the Madame.

"You know, convince me your plan for revolution is good, and I might decide about it." Louise muttered, staring at the red haired man who simply smiled back at her.

"I go there and I challenge him to a duel for the right to put on the throne Charlotte's mother," as he said that, he made a wand appear from thin air.

"To be utterly fair I'll fight him off only with wands, so I'll just have to pass as a noble from a faraway country. The banner I will display will be fairly rich to behold, and the nobles at that court will have no choice but to accept me as such." As he said that with a grin, a small globe of light appeared at the tip of his wand.

"Furthermore, I'll see what I can do to fix the king's rotten attitude, maybe put some good in him…or have him suffer the same way Charlotte's mother did," as he said that, he had a sort of morbid grin which made Louise shiver inside.

That was when the door opened again, and a Charlotte no longer with tears flowing down meekly muttered:

"Mother wants to speak with you, Arty," as she whispered that, she actually blushed when the wizard, passing by her, patted her head. Louise stared with slightly closed eyes, a small hunch telling her that she might get herself another rival, before blushing up too at the thought of actually considering someone, who was already being considered by the queen herself as one, as her possible future husband.

Arty entered the room where Tabitha's mother was, a tired looking woman with blue hair, and a petite figure, her physique certainly proved by the curse placed on her, a curse that Arty had a bit undervalued, until he had gone with the spell he actually understood the problem: the curse didn't limit itself to bouts of physical pain, but also swapped memories moving them around and making them interact forcefully with one another in the most traumatic ways a mind could possible feel. The simple fact the woman had held through a minimum of consciousness was a sign of a really strong will, a will that, if inherited into Charlotte, would mean another pebble in Arty's sack.

"I heard from my daughter that you are to thank, King Artos," as the woman said that, she bowed her head profoundly, but with grace, before standing back up, "but I would like you not to keep up your other half of the deal, I do not want to be crowned queen of Gallia, I wouldn't be able to." As she said that, Charlotte's eyes bulged and she exclaimed:

"Mother! What are you saying? After father's death they tried to poison me, and instead poisoned you, if they now were to know you are finally healed, assassins would come again! Some still support father's cause and…"

"Charlotte…you didn't know this, but your father, my husband…he hadn't been chosen by the king, it was Joseph who was chosen, and your father, while resenting the king, never stood up to it, letting his brother take over, if he didn't stand up, how could I honor his memory and stand up in his place?" as she whispered that, Charlotte suddenly felt like crying, was that all going to become meaningless in a couple of weeks then? As soon as the royal court would get a wind of this they'd certainly send assassins once more.

"I see…well, while I understand your concerns…it's not like I get the call." Arty replied, earning surprised stares from everyone in the room.

"I mean, I made a deal with Charlotte here, so she gets to choose what to do. You might be her mother, but she gets the choice. Furthermore, while it's true I'm sweetening the deal as much as I can, I'm pretty sure it might turn bloody in an instant at the palace of Gallia, and I will not hold back, probably destroying the capital in the process altogether but…" as Arty began speaking Louise interrupted him with a shriek.

"NO!" she wailed at him, "King or not, I'm not letting you destroy an entire capital! You heard Charlotte's mother! The deal is closed, done, finished, kaput!" as she muttered that she silently prayed Arty would understand too.

"The point is not wherever you *let me* or not, Louise," Arty replied pointing it out, "I can pretty much wave my hand and put you to sleep, go with Charlotte to the capital, solve the problem, alter your memory so you don't recall anything, and then keep going as nothing happened, inventing a story along the way about how Charlotte singlehandedly took down an entire monarchy. The reason I ain't doing it, is because it might get messy, and I do not like to alter memories, really, trust me on this, I have the skill and the power to, but I don't like altering memories or forcefully putting to sleep people I can talk and reason with" as he said that, he stressed the last words of his sentence, much to his dismay however, Louise had started looking at him with a frightened look, paling and trembling.

"Just don't do it, please Arty, please." She actually begged him, knowing all too well his powers, at least, theorizing how high they were.

"Charlotte?" Arty asked the blue haired girl, who had kept being silent, thinking hard.

"Charlotte…please; there is no need to worry about me, I can just feign been mad for a while, and except for Percerine, who is a trusted man, nobody stops by here, I would be safe."

"He killed father!" Charlotte replied back.

"It was a hunt accident," Charlotte's mother replied, "it could have happened to anyone."

"Well…how about a middle ground?" Arty suggested to them all, "I'm sure you've all at least once been in the royal Gallian palace, so, tomorrow, I grab the memories of how it looked like, and try and teleport there with Louise while invisible. I go and read the kings thoughts and, if he's an evil sick tyrant who killed Charlotte's father, I challenge him to a duel for justice. If he isn't then we leave in silence. Fine with it?" as he said that, Charlotte's mother stared at her daughter, who was still in the process of thinking.

"Arty, you can read thoughts?" Louise candidly asked the wizard, strange electricity crackling around her.

"Well, yes." Arty replied with a smile, which made Louise even more furious.

"So…that's how you knew Wardes was a betrayer," as she said that, Arty actually mimicked a pondered look, before using one hand as a fist to tap against the other open palmed, the universal sign of realizing something, and then nodding to the girl.

"So, you read all the thoughts without fail?" she asked once more, how could he not have realized she was still dreaming of his past then?

"There are three levels of mind thought. For example, right now you're thinking about ponies. Now it's a cauliflower, really? Then it is smashed potatoes and finally tuna salad? Well, you must be hungry. Anyway, Charlotte over there is thinking about rage and sadness at the same length, while the madam over here…better not tell, I did have a dive in her mind already to sort out the mess the curse had placed on her, and no, I'm not telling two young girls what can be in the mind of an adult," as he finished speaking, Louise realized her thoughts were actually clouded from him. He had been right on the cauliflower, but wrong on the smashed potatoes. When she thought about his past something made him think, and read her thoughts, as different. What could it be though?

"You should do something about it." Louise retorted quickly, but Arty shook his head.

"In the beginning it's just random emotions, like anger or sadness or similar, if they are something I shouldn't worry about, I don't focus, and I don't get the general picture. Still, if it's a one on one conversation that does tend to occur, but generally I do try and shift my attention elsewhere. When I can." As he said that, sheepishly, he turned around to Charlotte once more.

"So, what is your decision? You want the middle ground option?" Charlotte stared at Louise for a moment, to see the pink haired girl sigh.

"No." Charlotte replied, clenching her fists. "I'm coming with you, and if he killed father, then I want him to be brought to justice, together with whoever helped him. If he hasn't, he has still subjected me to numerous and utterly insane tasks, and I want to know why he has done that. Depending on the answer I will decide then."

Louise and Charlotte's mother were about to speak again, but Arty clapped his hands repeatedly, earning himself once more a look of surprise from the others.

"Then so it will be. We leave tomorrow at dawn…since I'm sticking around for the day, I'll go repair this place." And, saying that, he actually hurried out of the room in a dash, before Louise could dash at him to intercept him, and leaving Charlotte to fend off for herself against the pink haired girl and her mother's attempts to make her change her mind.

Percerine was overjoyed when he realized somebody had been repairing everything creaky and destroyed in the manor, especially when the kitchen actually resumed being a kitchen, and not a broken mess of broken tables. When he saw the cupboards, the cellars, the larder and the butlery filled to the brim with food, various amounts of food actually worthy of that name, and not the one that every now and then the king remembered, in his generosity, to offer to the prison-manor, he clearly thought he had to have died.

***The next Day- Gallia's royal palace***

Louise stood silent, as did Tabitha, hidden both under an invisibility spell, as Arty instead walked forward the audience hall, were the king, bored as it could seem, was sitting on his throne yawning heavily towards one of the many other nobles who always tried, through words filled with honey, to get something more. As always he felt nothing, watching the proud nobles and their pride washed away in front of him, for they had to act all humble in front of their king. Usually he wouldn't have bothered with receiving anyone, but he had dreamed last night. He had dreamed of a man appearing in the hall today, wearing strange symbols and challenging him to a duel.

So, when he muttered a "Next" for the next noble to come, not bothering to reply to the one who was kneeling, he suddenly straightened up, as did the other nobles of Gallia in the room, when a red haired man appeared straight in the center of the room, from nowhere. He had a black and purple banner, with a golden trim that seemed to sparkle of its own, making the nobles in the room feel uneasy, especially at the image depicted, of a clawed skeleton hand wielding a staff, which shot forward lightning.

Many of them went for their wands, aiming them at the strange dressed herald, who was wearing a set of red and blue robes, which looked like two different parts of two different set of clothing.

"I've got a guest." The king stated, without as much as a worry, grabbing his wand and standing up.

"Present yourself," he added then, staring at the man who seemed to be more occupied in looking around the hall.

"Sheesh. I've got some dueling to do now. I am a fellow King, of a country faraway. I am here to actually remove a murderer from the throne, and its helpers. So…" saying that, he actually pointed his index finger around, pointing some nobles out of the multitude, King included.

"That makes ten nobles to kill out of thirty-two. Well, it could have been worst. You are all accused of having killed the youngest son of the previous king of Gallia, thus I'm challenging you to a duel; the lot of you can admit your charges and go for process later on, get killed in a duel now, or have your seconds killed before you get processed later on." As he finished speaking, a thin wand appeared on his right hand, and he smiled gently.

"So, who would like to come first?"

***Next day, Magic Academy of Tristain***

"So…awesome!" Charlotte giggled looking at the Wizard, who was happily flying around the tower at a speed that rivaled Sylphid's, while the bet was on who would do so more artistically, speed was also a key factor to the race.

"Kyuuu!" Sylphid nodded enthusiastically, looking at the man her elder sister had opened up to, and for which she had actually opened up to the world. Whoever he was, he certainly was a man to be respected.

"This is kid's play! Try doing this while dodging fire arrows in the midst of a battlefield!" as he yelled that with a loud chuckle, he made his way back down, not before doing a triple backflip in the air, obviously.

"I say, I've clearly won the bet." Arty smiled joyously as he proceeded to then bear hugging Charlotte, and Sylphid too, albeit taking her by the neck, laughing out loud as he saw the color change on Charlotte's and the dragon's face.

Louise sat biting her right hand, staring at the sight in front of her, sure, she should but in and comment on how improper it was for such a thing, but it seemed more like Arty was acting like a father for Charlotte, than as a King interested in a marriage proposal. She hadn't dreamed about Artos' past last night, instead, it had been a recollection of the duel at the Gallia's palace. More than quick, it had been hilarious. She had heard him practically condemn himself to death, when the nobles bounded together, until a hand wave later; they were all placed to sleep, from the first to the last one, proud, young and old, strong or weak, sleazy or not, heck, the only surprise had been that Joseph, his face asleep, kind of looked serene.

She had thought about him doing something horrible to them, but he had smiled, and muttered a single word: "Nightmares."

He hadn't explained any more, and, after a quick teleportation, coupled with proof that Arty's mind reading ability was indeed very solid and working to the nobles who were willing to hear him out, the conspirers had been put into cells, without their wands, while Charlotte's mother had taken the throne.

It had been the swiftest and less bloody revolution ever, especially because the show of how their mages were defenseless against such type of magic proved to make it even more troublesome. She knew that the magic Arty was using for the sleep was temporary, and usually in the mid-tier of the spell circles, she didn't know how she knew, but she knew it wasn't the strongest available. It was just his skill that made it so, and that troubled her to no ends. He could put anyone on any throne with the flick of a wrist, destroy Germania by noon, and make Albion fall in the sea. Yet he did not, yet what he was doing now was playing flying tag with Charlotte and her dragon, making the blue haired girl laugh as much as possible, without worries. The more she watched, the more she felt envy for the girl, why wasn't she also a part of it? She knew the reason: she had to keep at least a minimum of etiquette in school, Charlotte was from Gallia, and was now even more a princess, while Arty was a king of his own, she was the daughter of a duke, certainly, but had yet to become a duchess herself. Things being like that, it was to no wonder that she was watching the scene to the side, together with Kirche who had a sort of motherly smile on her face, and hadn't stopped yapping about how Arty would certainly prove powerful also in other *skills*.

Another reason was homework assignment: she had done anything but homework, and, while it wasn't mandatory, she didn't want to look at the faces of the displeased professor. Arty had been busy and thus she had decided to work on her own.

"mumble…stupid Kirche shut up." She muttered as Kirche once more chuckled at the sight of Arty flying in the same way a man would walk on his hands.

"He's upside down, Louise! Levitation upside down, and so fast, is impossible usually."

"That's not levitation: it is a Fly spell, third circle. It goes fast but only has a round per round duration. So I suppose he's mixing in the actual flying spell that lasts hours instead, alternating between the two like it was nothing." As Louise muttered that, without thinking, Kirche stared at the pink-haired girl surprised.

"Did Darling explain that?"

"No. It's easy to realize, once you see how he hasn't gesticulated or pronounced incantations of particular nature, thus the spell circle is lower than mid-high tier. The only options remaining would be that he's been lifted by unseen servants, but such a mean would let his clothing turn upside down too, while, as you may notice, they are sticking to him like gravity followed his feet," pointed that out, Louise felt the need to finally finish writing down the last sentence of the homework for Professor Colbert.

"There. Done." Closing up her parchment, and cleaning her quill from the remaining ink, she sighed, before being, in that precise instant, slightly tapped on the right shoulder.

Louise turned around just in time to see her elder sister, Eleonore, staring at her surprised.

"Elder sister?" Louise asked cautiously.

"Louise…I was told to come and bring you back to our estate because a disturbing letter had come in from the Queen, but…are you actually doing your homework!" as she stated that, much to be even more sure, she grabbed the parchments and began looking at them.

"They are actually correct!" she yelled, her blond hair and petite figure, coupled with a pair of small glasses on the tip of her nose, quivering.

"Finally you put on judgment!" she stated once more, as Louise blushed heavily.

"Elder sister! Please…you're embarrassing me!" she squeaked, realizing that suddenly someone had been staring behind Eleonore at the parchments.

"No, fourth line of second paragraph, I thought I had told you that the book was wrong on that regard: as previously stated in the errata, Wind plus Wind plus Fire does not make a giant fireball, but it can either make a flame whip or a fire wave." As Arty, matter of fact, stated that, Eleonore turned around, to face the upside down face of the Wizard, who smiled back.

"Oh hello there," he said, turning back to the normal gravity of Halkeginia, and slowly descending on the soft grass of the academy.

"He…hello" Eleonore sputtered, turning red as the brilliant smile of the wizard took a new victim.

"Darling! Why don't you look at my homework too!" Kirche pouted, trying to hug him once more, but stopping midway, to hug behind her, actually managing to get Arty, for the first time, into a hug, as Flame found itself on the ground.

"Sheesh. She got me!" Arty muttered.

Louise stood up, grabbing her wand.

"Zerbst. Remove your hand from his highness, King Artos Basileus Sfor this instant, or I will have you remove them by strength of arms." As she said that, she didn't realize what she was doing, it just felt actually right to do so, to a friend? No, the truth was another, she soon realized it as Eleonore stared surprise; she wanted to show off her friend to her elder sister, show off who she had summoned. That feeling was a bit…wicked?

Arty, in the meantime, had smiled, simply, laughing it off:

"No need Louise, no need; I'll just have to give her what she wants, then," as he said that, Kirche, who was tightly holding one of his arms inside her ample cleavage, looked at him perplexed for a moment, before the wizard, holding her gently with his free hand by the chin, gave her a kiss straight on the lips.

The next moment, the red, fierce, and busty Germanian student fell on her knees, panting heavily.

"Good…gracious…I…" she muttered, gasping for air.

"Nice to know you liked it," as Arty chuckled that, a voice, small, deep and a bit angrily, muttered something inside of Louise's head.

_For all that is unholy: WE HAVE A PROBLEM._

**Author's notes:**

**Well, if you haven't realized it, I'm moving *out of canon* while staying *in canon* changing some timelines, altering some events, adding towns and places. Since, after all, it's boring to always see the same stuff happening, right?**

**Tell me what you think about Charlotte's *sparkly* personality, if it should change to something else, or should return to normal. I had doubts about it, and went with the *Little Giddy girl* myself.**

**I read about the Mary sue, and I actually hope it won't end up like that (though probably that depends on how the Crescendo goes since there is a Decrescendo coming soon). **

**Bonus cookies to who had realized this was going to happen (at end of the chapter) (at least a chapter before). **

**As for Romance, I have set the option on *Let us make the readers realize it on their own*.**

**It will not however be Harem. Rest assured on that. And no lemons will be shown. Ever. Subtlety mentioned, but never explicitly referred to.**

**To blinded: While this chapter won't prove much, about the *Mary sue* avoided, the next one will probably solve all doubts on why and how Arty can and will get his ass handed over. In more than one way. Though I'm afraid you got it wrong on the ritual…*grins evilly* good to know it's still a mysterious thing yet to happen.**

**Final Notes:**

**I doubt there are spells that need explanation. IF you have some doubts, just review or ask them in the private mail. I enjoy getting reviews btw. **


	10. Chapter 10: Progressing Levels

Chapter Ten

Louise was silently riding on the same carriage as her elder sister, while Arty was enjoying staying right next to the driver and idly talking to him. This actually made the all situation embarrassing, at least for Eleonore, who had tried to convince the *King* to stay in the carriage like all the nobles would, his reply had left the blond haired woman frozen for a good half an hour:

"I'd rather speak with a man who holds no wits in his tongue, and thus means no ill, than with one trained to poison with words."

That had also made her unable to actually insult Louise herself, it was like the king had predicted her possible and obvious outcome of bashing on her youngest sister; though this also helped Louise, because she too had problems that required silence to be faced.

_You're the flying skull._

_You're the pink-haired sixteen year old moron._

_I will not have you insult me!_

_Oh what are you going to do? Shut your brain!_

_I…I'm not even sure WHY you're in my head!_

_I actually shouldn't, it's your fault for being a sort of black hole of negative energy. I felt attracted._

_Attracted? _Louise blushed slightly, attracted to her or what?

_Yeah kid, to the massive amount of negative energy around you, certainly not because of your troll charms._

_TROLL CHARM! _She clenched her fists in fury, gritting her teethes: the problem was she had no idea how to make him stop!

_Yeah, I've seen bugbears act more womanly than you'll ever be!_

As she heard that, she couldn't help but think about the floating eyes monstrosity one of her classmates had as a familiar, just to be corrected by another image, showing a humanoid creature with fur and a flat face.

_So who are you?_

_I am Artos Basileus Sfor, King of Necros, Destroyer of Good and the Reaper of souls! You may refer to me as Lord Sfor, or Your Majesty._

_Arty is on the carriage next to the driver! You're fooling no one!_

_Believe what you want to, I don't care. We've got a bigger problem._

_What could be worse than a skull talking in my head?_

_If I'm here, and mind you, it's pretty comfortable since it does seem EMPTY, the guy over there hasn't realized it yet. So, either he's mind is in the clouds, or he's turning into a complete goody two shoes._

_Arty *is* good!_

_Girl, there is no good without evil, complete lack of evil is worse than complete lack of good. I don't go around killing and butchering ALL my subordinates, because it would be meaningless; at the same time, if he becomes *too* good, he might do things you won't like. _

_Like what?_

_Think about it: if he sees a famished commoner strolling around the street of Tristania, who asks for justice, he'll deliver it. He'll probably remove the monarchy, insert a …oh god Democracy…brr how I hate that name, and then he'll probably let the PEOPLE decide. You know he's got the power to do it, and without me, he might just as well do it._

…_I think I can understand that. But I don't know, why should I send you back to him?_

_Thoughts on Martyrdom now? You know, I have been acting like a real gentleman, not trying to make you suffer like hell, but maybe I should just try and let you realize how evil I am._

_What is the worse you can do? Talking angrily?_

Louise hadn't realized it yet, but words that cannot be ignored are the fiercest weapon any living being has at its own disposal. Especially if you also know what to speak about in order to hurt someone.

_Hey Zero, you feel so special right? You've summoned a strong familiar, right? You think now you will no longer be the Zero! What a pity that nothing was done BY YOU. Everything was Arty's work. Everything has been done by him, you have done NOTHING; you have helped NO ONE. You are a worthless brat who's taking advantage of him, letting him do EVERYTHING while you reap the glory, don't you! You've got this so called void magic, and you can't even USE IT! You're so pathetical it makes me want to PUKE, why don't you go and cry in a corner, or maybe you prefer the lake of your mansion, huh? Why didn't you just DROWN yourself in that lake? Maybe you would have avoided all the FAILURES in your whiny, pathetical life!_

Every word hurt. Every single word made Louise realize something and as the skull spoke harsher than ever before, Louise couldn't help but cringe, placing her hands against her ears, shaking violently and beginning to cry.

"Louise! Is everything alright?" Eleonore asked worriedly, moving close to her youngest sister, who seemed to have been paling and was now crying while violently shaking her head, and was actually looking very, very afraid.

"Elder sister Eleonore!" Louise wailed hugging tightly her sister, and crying all the tears she had, "I'm just a failure... why can't I be like the others?" as the pink-haired girl kept sobbing and weeping, her elder sister didn't know what to do.

"Louise…" she whispered back to the crying girl, as she slowly began caressing her hair, "Everything is fine, really." she added, trying to console the girl.

"No, it's not. Arty does everything while I can't do a thing." She whined trying her best to actually merge with Eleonore around the chest area with her face.

"Now, now. Calm down and assume a proper form." Eleonore replied, grabbing a handkerchief and forcing Louise to actually blow her nose on that, and not on her blouse.

"You can't compare a commoner to a noble, so you can't compare a noble to a royal. It's just a different level. I'm sure you did something worthy of praise in all this time, so…"

Louise began thinking: Fouquet? IT was solved by Arty. Albion letter? Solved together with Arty, and Wardes had betrayed them. Battle of Tarbes? Arty, had gone at it alone. She had gotten under a love potion effect, and Arty had clearly helped her. She had refused to help Arty with the Gallian king, until he had actually convinced her. She had been doing nothing, nothing at all. Except sleeping, following Arty, eating and sleeping again.

So, she cringed.

"I DID NOTHING!" she wailed once more, covering her face with her hands, more tears running down her cheeks.

"What's happening in here?" Arty asked, his head appearing from the side of the carriage, staring at the sight of a crying girl and a perplexed woman, who took that moment to snap back at the man.

"Your Majesty, I'm sorry my sister disturbed you, but she just started crying, calling herself a failure, for no reason," as Eleonore said that, she clenched her fists. Certainly, she couldn't tell it was his fault for being so damn perfect and gorgeous, right?

Arty nodded simply entering from the carriage's window, without doing much of a fuss as the carriage had kept going at a regular speed.

He slowly moved closer to the crying Louise, and hugged her tightly.

"Let me go…I'm just a failure," Louise whispered, her eyes red from the tears, as she tried, albeit weakly, to remove herself from the wizard.

"Nobody is a failure, Louise." Arty replied, "Everyone has things he or she excels in," he slowly whispered, patting her head slightly.

"You're just being nice. I know I'm a failure: I can't even use my own magic," she whispered back, pouting it as she was actually enjoying the soothing sensation of Arty's hand on her hair.

_Oh, so you want to be his pet. That settles it then, I'll grab you a big spikey collar with written: ZERO, and then you'll be his pet._

"You aren't a failure, Louise, if you mark greatness as the ability to climb a steep cliff, the mountain goat will get there first, but the fish won't be able to even begin climbing. On the other hand the fish will swim faster than anyone else in the sea, and that's the point of it…everything is relative, Louise. You are no more of a failure than I." As he muttered that, he slowly used his left hand to move upward Louise's chin and, in consequence, the rest of her face.

"It doesn't matter what other think, but what you think of yourself. You are great Louise, and you've got a strong will, and you're also cute to top it off, but if you keep undervaluing yourself, you won't be able to see just how strong you actually are."

_I'm going to puke a bucket, and I'm a SKULL. Grant me mercy and make him shut up!_

Louise blushed heavily, and naturally closed her eyes, moving her lips just slightly in a kiss form, before being interrupted by a harsh set of coughs.

"I'm still in the carriage, you know," Eleonore stated, matter of fact, slightly red in the face, as she watched the way the King had soothed her younger sister. He was a bit too old for her however, but maybe he'd be interested in someone a bit more…smart, like…herself, to say one, but she had to make sure he was available, firstly.

"Sorry," Louise whispered, blushing and folding her arms over her lap, staring at the down side of the carriage, realizing suddenly that Arty hadn't indeed, removed his right arm from around her.

"I'm sorry if this sounds a bit like I'm overstepping my confidence, your majesty, but are you already in a relationship?" as Eleonore asked that, she realized Louise was blushing furiously, the King couldn't have…

"Yes, I am," as he replied that, slowly, Louise stared at him.

_Oh no. No. NO. MAKE HIM STOP. IF HE SPEAKS ANYMORE WE'RE ALL DOOMED._

_What? Why?_

_I'll explain later, MAKE HIM QUIET!_

"Oh, then, if I may still ask, wouldn't your half be angry about your…expansiveness?" she asked once more, looking at how the man hadn't still removed his hand from Louise's shoulder.

"Well she's…"

"ARTY!" Louise snapped, making the Wizard slightly jump.

"What?" he asked.

"There's no need to answer! Elder sister Eleonore is just jealous! AND OLD!" as she said that, she bit her tongue not soon enough, for her sister actually charged at her, tackling her cheeks and beginning to show just how jealous she actually was and how old she was meant to be.

Arty stared at the sight perplexed, not understanding in the slightest. Well, he'd have to tell them later who he was in a relationship with.

The carriage bumped for the rest of the voyage, and certainly not because the road was bumpy.

As they descended towards the outskirt of the La Vallière mansion, a pink haired woman came to meet them, to whom Louise actually ran to hide from Eleonore.

"Elder sister Cattleya!" she yelled as she hugged and was hugged by the older woman.

"My, my, Louise how you've grown!" she happily murmured, and then looked at the man, who looked back at her.

In that moment, they both blushed.

Eleonore actually realized it through her feminine sixth sense, while Louise didn't until the voice in her head began screaming rage and darkness.

_NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! __SHE'S GOING TO KILL US AND SKEWER US! NO NO NO NO NO AND NO!_

Holding her temples, for the headache of the noise in her head, she only barely managed to hold on to Cattleya's dress, before outright fainting, the strength of the voice in her head too much for her to keep up, as his yells and cries were like being pummeled directly in the brain.

"Louise!" Cattleya exclaimed, a bit shocked, as she was suddenly holding her younger sister in her arms. Arty rushed over quickly, grabbing a hold of the young girl, and, holding her, was brought by Cattleya to a room with a large bed, and…a load of animals. Animals which, normally happy and playful, suddenly steered clear of the young pink haired girl and the man, they weren't smart, but they knew when foul play was afoot.

As Arty slowly dropped Louise on the bed, Cattleya neared by with her water magic, but frowned.

"I…I don't think there's nothing strange…no poisons." She whispered.

"Might be a curse." Arty muttered back, cracking his fingers as he began muttering words.

"No, she's curse free," he added after a moment.

"A sudden migraine could come from damage in the brain, but it's clean, and she's not losing blood from the nose," Cattleya replied.

"She might have been simply stressed out from the voyage to Gallia, the homework, and the voyage here too. So, when she finally stopped being nervous, she had a mental breakdown due to overloaded stress levels…just letting her rest would be fine." Arty replied, to which Cattleya thought for a moment, putting her right hand index on her right cheek, puffing, before nodding.

"It might just as well be…so you've been to Gallia?" as she asked that, she slowly moved out of the room, where Eleonore was actually standing, a bit nervous.

"Yes we have." Arty replied, following and gently closing the door behind him, but not before, strangely, seeing all the animals in Cattleya room leaving too, and disperse in the hallway towards the garden.

"Strange." Cattleya muttered looking at the running animals.

"Maybe they just wanted to let your sister rest?" Arty commented.

"Anyway, mother is not going to be pleased," Eleonore muttered, paling a bit, "Leaving the borders without consent is breaking one of the rules of steel."

"Rules of steel?" Arty asked back, to which Eleonore and Cattleya both shivered.

"Yes, Mother is…" but she stopped, as a maid came closer to the trio and bowing, warned that the Madam was waiting them for dinner, together with the royalty guest.

Arty followed silently, starting to think about what was going on.

_Hey, you there?_

…

_You read me?_

…

_This is Ground Control, do you read me?_

…

_Are you playing the offended game?_

…

_Suit yourself._

***Inside Louise's mind***

Louise was staring at a pitch black hole, which was turning around itself like a whirlpool in the sea. Near its borders stood the floating skeleton, and next to him, a humanoid figure, clad in purple and golden, which looked like a corpse. A corpse she had already seen in her dreams.

"Where am I?" she muttered, moving closer to the duo, who, turning around, then stared at each other, the skull floating, and the lich staring with his red glint in the eyes.

"You're in your soul, it seems." As the Lich stated that, he moved closer, his corpse rotted to a point where it was easier to see the bones than the skin itself.

"Who are you?" she whispered, she would have wanted to scream, but fear wasn't something she was feeling, now.

"I am Artos Basileus Sfor, Lich, guardian of the Contract." As he said that, he then gestured to the flying skull which was moving closer, around him an aura of energy flickered to light, showing various hues of red colors.

"I am Artos Basileus Sfor, Demilich, True king of Necros." The skull cackled, staring at the girl, "You should call me Lord Sfor, while you can call the Lich over there Basileus." As he said that, he moved closer to the girl.

"And now, you'll have to hear us out."

"Why should I?" Louise muttered, puzzled and surprised by the statements of the two.

"Because you need to understand the truth and why it is important, utterly important, that you do not say a word to anyone." The Lich commented.

"Not even to Arty?" as Louise asked that, the skull, Sfor, growled.

"No, especially to him, or anyone else; you see, you are in deep, deep shit." As he said that, Louise blinked in surprise, what?

"What are you…such crude words!" she exclaimed.

"Listen till the end, girl: you have been made into a portal of negative and arcane energy," as the Lich muttered that, he pointed towards the black hole.

"That's what I'm talking about. It's a portal directly linking to the negative plane and to the arcane web." As he added that, Louise didn't know what to say, so, the Demilich continued instead.

"Basically, girl, you're like a ship loaded with explosives. All that is needed is someone to light you up, and then you explode releasing darkness and arcane energies everywhere. Powering up this world for all the wizards and all the sorcerers around to be born naturally," then the Lich added to it:

"The problem lies that there can't be darkness without light," as he said that, the Demilich, Sfor, growled again.

"Says who?"

"Says me"

"I'm me too."

"Oh shut up and let me finish!" the lich snapped back, before turning his dead gaze to the girl.

"The portal of good and divine energy is somewhere in this world, moving around, and the gods," as he said that with a snarl, Louise actually realized he was angry, "have it on their side. Probably there *is* a Solar somewhere, guarding the portal of positive energy and divine energy. The point is: they are amassing strength, to come over here, and imprison you for all eternity while sacrificing their own portal so as to be able to activate positive and divine energy worldwide for Clerics to naturally be born and not invested, bringing hence their powers here, and shifting this world into the cosmic wheel."

The Demilich then added, carefully:

"Basically, the good guys wish to imprison you for all eternity, because if you were to die…then you'd free that thing over there, and the bad guys too want to kill you, because by doing so they could actually FREE THAT THING OVER THERE" as he yelled that, he looked into the sight of the finally scared Louise, who was trembling.

"So, how does it feel to be fucked over by a god, huh?" the Demilich snorted, "I know that feeling well: We got our life destroyed by a god's prophecy, you know it, you saw our past."

"The problem isn't only there though. It's with Arty too." The Lich added, "He is naturally good, because the contract asks for that, but he is also going to grow incredibly ..."

"STUPID" the Demilich yelled, "He'll become so nice, and good, that he'll start not realizing when people are lying to him, he'll trust anyone, and anything, and that…"

"That is a problem" the lich commented. "Who he is in a relationship with, for example, would be, if revealed, while nothing lethal, nothing less than a big headache, for us, for you, for anyone. Yet he was ready to speak of it freely. That's the point…as would be the same revealing who this flying skull tackled to the ground in Sigil. Isn't that right?" the lich stared for a brief moment at the skull, who tried his best to whistle away the call of infidelity.

"Not my fault. She jumped on me first!"

"Yes, like I'd believe the story." The Lich replied sighing.

"So, who is Arty in a relationship with? And him?" Louise asked, curious, pointing also to the flying skull.

"Can't answer yet; you could erroneously end up having your mind read, and while some things are fixable, like who our body is dating is, the knowledge of who that idiotic skull is seeing isn't, at all, fixable." The Lich muttered. "Maybe at a later date you will be told though. Just, don't go asking".

Louise nodded, but queried:

"What's this contract you're talking about? And why can't I remove that thing from me?"

"The contract is…" the Lich looked at the Demilich, who floated up and down, like a sort of nod, which made then the Lich nod in turn back and start explaining: "A requisite for an Epic spell, which basing itself on the Transform seed, effectively cuts in three distinct parts the power of Artos, Basileus and Sfor, each of us is but a third of our original power, and we can call through the contract to loan power from one to another. Basically, Arty is always good. I am always Lawful and he is always…well," pointing at the skull that began cackling:

"I AM ALWAYS AWESOME!"

"yeah, well, you got the idea: I usually do not interact much, since one voice in the head is more than enough, and two would be exaggerating," as he said that, Louise kind of understood it.

"So, wait, Arty is even more powerful than how he actually showed!"

"No, when he fought in the battle of Tarbes, firstly he used the flying artifact, the Airplane," as the Lich said that, the Demilich gleefully snickered:

"FLYING BUTCHER OF DOOM TM!"

"It's not a trademark," the lich retorted.

"It was after we altered much of it to our need."

"Well, anyway, the gist of it is that even then, he called upon another one of us, for the battle of Tarbes it was myself; personally I would have preferred not to, but he." Pointing at the Demilich, "Would have used that as an excuse to show off our necromantic streak, I'm more of a summoner. Usually, if something is summoned of the ninth circle or above, it's my will coming through".

As he said that, Louise nodded once more.

"I've also been giving you knowledge subconsciously, because I realized it would be better if you actually knew what Arty was doing. Since knowledge is power, however, I must ask you to guard it well." As he said that, the Demilich stared back at the lich, and muttered, making his mandible crackle.

"We're already giving her much, so let's get this done with before she wakes up"

"Why can't I remove that thing then?" Louise asked worried.

"You can't, because it's tied to your own magic. Sure, you could die and then be resurrected through a Wish spell or a Miracle or a Pure Resurrection, but you'd forever lose all your magic abilities, arcane related or Void related."

"Why are they both tied together?" Louise asked again, perplexed.

"That thing over there would have already corrupted you to the core," as the Lich said that, pointing at the black hole, the Demilich spun around gleefully, whispering:

"But there is someone, it fears. Someone it calls VOID BORN!" as he said that, humming a strange song about a strange land, erupting into laughter, the Lich sighed, and turned his stare to the pink-haired girl once more.

"Basically, your void magic is keeping the darkness of the negative plain from corrupting you, pretty powerful magic too, if it can do such a feat."

"So…what should I do now?" Louise queried.

"Well, basically? Nothing." As the girl grimaced, the Lich assumed a thinking position, "Except train in the arcane arts. If you can manage to muster your soul, and yourself, then the void would be free to actually become another asset of your power. Basically, as of now, you're weak, you're like forced to use Zero Point Five percent of both magic, but once you manage to train, you'd actually reach, at the end, hundred percent to both, thus bringing you up to two hundred percent. Hard trek, but it ends in glory" as the Lich stated that, the Demilich chuckled.

"Glory or not, listen carefully girl: this isn't a joke and it isn't an easy thing like delivering a letter. You must find out WHO the good nice girly or boy with the good nice portal is and then convince Arty to swap back with one of us. NOT before. Since everyone is hell bent on searching you to kill you, or harm you to then imprison you, Arty will protect you just fine. As long as you keep your mouth shut of what has happened here, in your dream."

"Why can't I tell him?" Louise asked back.

"If you do tell him, he'll try to get us back to him." The Lich stated, "The problem would then lay in the fact that we both are easily detectable and he would need to make us detectable to reabsorb us. Right now, you are the biggest source of negative energy around, if any of us pops out…well, OUR energy is pretty much distinctive, and they'd know it."

"It's just got the right amount of pepper in it, you know and Solars love Pepper." Sfor snickered.

"Something like that; in any case, do not attempt to tell him, or he'll start thinking of a solution, and then he'll try and be DIPLOMATIC with the opposite front…and since he'll be working for the greater good…" with that said, the Lich moved closer to the girl, "He might as well realize that imprisoning a single girl to help the good would be better than to let said girl be free to choose her own path" and as Louise's face clouded with fear, the Demilich added as the final words:

"Or even better, imprison her himself to avoid her dying at the hands of Evil!" with that grin and those chuckles, Louise woke up in cold sweat.

_Are you still there?_

_Yes girl, here I am._

_You sound…different._

_I'm Basileus. You might prefer me over the idiot crackling skull of…_

_S: I heard that!_

_B: Back to your place, Sfor. _

_S: Don't forget I hear you just fine_

_L: So…what should I do now? _

_Well, you can begin by standing up, washing, freshening, and moving towards the dining room, before Arty decides to rattle out secrets he shouldn't speak of._

***In the Meantime-Albion-Outskirts ***

"Be destroyed Undeath spawn!" as Jeanne yelled harnessing the powers of Pelor, a bright light shone across the road they had been travelling for nearly two days. It was like the entire world had been out to get them. Every now and then something would pop up from the side of the road be it brigands, deserters, hungry animals or other undead like the ones that had killed her village. AS the light shone brightly over them, Cristopher was instead doing his best to hold a fierce looking and bigger corpse away from her, and as it slashed at its body with wounds that would have at least brought to bleed loss the monster, the monster threw its only body into a single ferocious attack, pushing him down, unfazed by the bright light as Jeanne began chanting for a prayer to reinforce her and her friend.

"FOR HEIRONEUS!" as the Paladin yelled that, a set of sharp arrows suddenly burst forward from the side of the road, hitting the backside of the corpse which turned to dust a moment later.

A black clad man walked forward, silently, wielding a repeating crossbow as his armor made of leather soaked in the light, preventing it from shining back.

"Pathetical," he muttered looking at the two on the road, "If I hadn't been tasked by the Shalm himself, I'd have stayed where I was. You both lack in knowledge to survive in these lands" as a matter of fact, he removed his hood, to reveal a sharp stern face, grey eyes and silver hair. He looked a bit aged, but not too much to actually be called old.

"You need to learn where to hit them, when to dodge instead of block, you got overwhelmed because you thought your strength was enough" as he spoke moving closer to the paladin, he helped him back up, "and you Miss, you didn't gauge the enemy's strength effectively, and wasted time when you could have done something else, like giving more strength to the paladin."

"Who…who are you Mister?" Jeanne asked, puzzled by the words which still held true.

"I'm Devon Malazar, ranger and scourge of the undead, the Shalm himself, the god of balance, the great Obad-Hai, has sent me here to help you lot. We must move and strike fast at the heart of the corruption, but first things first: GET THE FUCK OFF THE ROAD!" he snapped, angrily as the two followed him out of the road.

"Beginners mistake is to stay on the road thinking it's safe. It isn't. In the wilds you risk animals, but not bandits and deserters, and animal are easier to kill than those two. So, follow me you two wussies and I'll get you to Londinium in one piece." As he began marching towards the thick of the forest, ignoring the road, Cristopher whispered to Jeanne:

"Should we trust him? He isn't evil that much I can assure,"

"We have no choice, he seems to know what we've got to do, and he did help you," as the girl replied, Cristopher nodded, sure, the man was a bit grumpy, but if he killed zombies as well as he did, he was entitled to a fair share of grumpiness.

***Halkeginia-Royal Palace***

"Your Majesty, please think about this," Cardinal Mazarin pleaded to the Queen, after hearing her distressed decision, "he might be a suitable marriage candidate, but he is *not* the Emperor of Germania, sure he's powerful, but he can't be ever-present, assassination attempts could happen anytime."

"I have already given up on marrying for love, Cardinal, but if I have to marry for power, then I will marry King Sfor. He is powerful, and kind, and I'm sure I could grow to actually love him. That is if he's not satisfied with his wife. My good friend spoke with him while I was present, while he does have a family, he had no heirs; thus he might as well be celibate or with a sterile wife."

"But your highness, what if he *is* the cause of having no heirs? Maybe he's the one sterile."

"Then I will ask him, because I'll be boarding the flagship of the conjoined fleets of Tristain and Germania, and I've given order for Louise Françoise to be there."

"Miss de la Vallière is young, your majesty, she would need her parent's approval first…" as the Cardinal then realized the words before muttered by the queen, he couldn't help but slightly raise his tone:

"Your Highness! Boarding a flagship? With the soldiers? What…"

"I will fight along my people, Cardinal, that is all." The queen, Henrietta, snapped back, staring at him harshly, "nothing will make me change my mind, and with Louise Françoise wielding the power of the void, and the King of Necros, whose power you have certainly witnessed together with me at Tarbes, what should I have to fear Cardinal!"

"Your highness…pride is a sin that the Founder warned us against," the Cardinal replied meekly, "But I am not to discuss her Highness, wishes; I will have the Manticore guards ready to…"

"No, the Musketeers corps will be used." Henrietta snapped back.

"Yes your Majesty, as you wish."

"You may leave now, Cardinal." And as Cardinal Mazarin bowed to leave in a hurry, Henrietta sighed, silently relaxing herself on the chair of her personal bedroom.

She stood up, moving to grab a bottle of wine and drinking two cups' worth of it, before putting down the bottle and sitting on the side of her bead, hands between her hair.

"Oh Wales…why did you have to disappear? If only I knew you were dead, that would set my mind at ease." She whispered to no one in particular, before laying down on the soft mattress, too tired to actually get in her nightgown and sleep, and not too tired to actually fall asleep. As her mind drifted back to happy thoughts, she heard a knock coming from the door.

Standing up, and slapping her cheeks slightly to regain some bit of self-control, she moved to the door, to query:

"Who is it?"

As the question was asked, no one replied.

The knock repeated itself.

"Who is it? I will call the guards if no answer comes." As she said that, she did grab her scepter that doubled as a mace.

No answer, once more, and another knock came. Followed by a loud thud against the door.

Henrietta remained silent, for a moment that seemed eternity, and then opened the door slowly, to see a dagger piercing a small piece of parchment to the side of her door.

What made her shiver, however, was the content of the message:  
_"The king of Necros holds Prince Wales Tudor hostage, do not trust him. Never."_

"Must be one of the Cardinal's tries to make me reconsider," she muttered angrily as she tore into pieces the message, before calling in the guards and having them search around for an intruder. She'd face the Cardinal in the morning, and then, just to be sure, she would face the King of Necros later on. Whoever played this prank to her however would pay dearly, and may the Founder forgive her, but she'd have the culprit tortured before.

***Halkeginia-La Vallière Estate-Dinner time***

The room chosen for dinner was big, to say the less of it, it was also richly adorned with golden chandelier, the best possible silverware had been taken, and the dishes were made out of the best of porcelain available inside the house. Such display of richness came together with the women of the house, Cattleya, Eleonore and the Duchess, being they too richly adorned in jewels, and smiling broadly and pleasantly to the King, who stood, since etiquette dictated that, at the head of the table, while they consummated a well prepared plate, whose quantity nearly bordered the atomic properties, *nouvelle cuisine* it was called.

Arty would have actually preferred a sandwich, maybe with peanut butter jelly, heck, he would have even eaten a banana while keeping eye contact with another man rather than trying to delicately grab a pair of peas and toss them into a minuscule quantity of fish.

He was starting to think that maybe he should simply make the stuff animate and fly in his mouth directly, but still…

"Your Highness," the Duchess actually broke the ice first, especially when she realized that the king was two steps away from having a stress fit concerning a rolling about survivor pea, "I heard by a reliable source that you alone fought and destroyed an army of three thousands and its fleet, would you give a counsel to my daughters, about how they could grow in power like your grace?"

"Mother…" Cattleya whispered, but hushed to silence once the stare of the Duchess set on the long pink haired woman.

"Power corrupts, Duchess. The more power one has, the more he becomes inclined to use it for its own means." Arty replied, placing his hands in the form that a certain Mr. Burns once taught him, he whispered: "Nothing, furthermore, is obtained easily; one must train, both the body and the mind, before being able to actually reach the heights of his own power. Even then, even when one has reached its limits, there is always a way, albeit hidden, to grow yet stronger. The problem lies in who earns the power. There is no distinct white and black, no good or evil. Should a little evil be conceded, so as to save millions? Would one sacrifice someone, to save a thousand others? Does a life have more meaning than another? As a being of power, I hope first and foremost that none rise at my same height, not because I fear to be usurped, but because I fear they won't be able to live with their powers without bringing forth destruction." As he said that, he had casually made the Pea disappear into nothingness.

"You must possess an incredible amount of self-control, your majesty." Eleonore whispered first after a moment. The thoughts of what she would do, had she the same powers as the king sitting at the head of the table were drowning her in dreams of riches, respect and knowledge. The earl Burgandi was there too, somewhere, suffering for having cancelled the engagement with her.

Cattleya was instead thinking, and she thought out loud:

"It must be lonely."

"Cattleya." The Duchess snapped at her second oldest daughter, who bowed her head in apology, but had Arty smile warmly.

"No need to apologize. It's the truth. Though my family takes priority, I do feel lonely most of the time, when my … brothers, ignore me to work alone." As he said that, he had given off a message, yet the other at the table had received a completely different one. There were two brothers available in the royalty of Necros.

"Are they, by any chance, celibate?" as the Duchess asked the question, Arty began thinking for a moment.

"Well…one is."

Outside, inside of Louise's mind, the Lich Basileus sneezed.

_Can one like you get a cold?_

_No. It's just because someone is talking about me._

_Should we enter now?_

_Yes. _

Louise entered the dining room, taking a silent seat next to Eleonore, while staring in wait as the servitude placed platters, the silverware and the glasses. The Duchess stared at her youngest but for a brief moment, before turning once more to stare at the king.

"Well, I'm afraid that, concerning the letter, I won't be able to give you a proper answer until my husband, the Duke, returns from his business trip; though the fact that Louise is needed for the war with Albion is something I find unfathomable."

"I understand perfectly your concerns, finding out that one of your children holds the power of the Void is…" at that moment however, Arty was cut short by a loud *WHAT!*. The Duchess simply coughed, before turning to stare at Louise, who had shrimped down into her seat.

"Wasn't it mentioned in the letter?" Arty asked, carefully.

"No." the Duchess replied, staring coldly at her youngest. "Louise, when and how did you manage to acquire that legendary power?"

Louise gulped, looking at her hands.

_See? That's why we need to get back in his brain, before he turns into a pudding of idiocy; idiocy and power._

"Louise, answer mother!" Eleonore snapped at the girl.

"I…" she wanted to plead to Arty, but she stopped once more, afraid.

_Repeat after me, girl: I discovered it after fighting Wardes, who turned out a betrayer, in the chapel of Newcastle. I destroyed an entire section of the wall; the man included, and then fainted. It wasn't a fire spell, nor of any other type, thus was the void option the only remaining one._

Louise slowly repeated every word, keeping her eyes' on the table, not daring to raise them.

"Is it true, your majesty? She's not lying is she?" as Eleonore turned around to ask Arty, he nodded back in reply.

"It's true. I was a witness to it all," as the King of Necros replied that, Cattleya paled.

"I can't believe it," Eleonore muttered, "You've got the Void power, and yet you were calling yourself worthless in the carriage?"

"I can't use them well! I just have them!" Louise whispered, "I don't know of any letter, nor did I know I had to go to war, but if it's her majesty's orders, than I will comply."

_Loyalty is praised always, as long as it doesn't become BLIND._

_What do you mean?_

_Why are you loyal to the queen?_

_Because she's the queen! And my friend! _

_Precisely my point._

"My daughter would become a tool of war, which can't even fight?" the Duchess questioned looking at Arty. However, he didn't get the time for an answer, as the next moment, the table creaked as air blades launched themselves against Louise, who reacted on instinct, by putting her arms in front of her face. Artos was thankfully quicker, and substituted himself with Louise, in the nick of time.

Realizing offense was being taken with the intent to kill through magic, the first contingency activated itself, the Dispel launching onto the first blade, but letting the other two pass, cutting deeply onto Artos' back, who gritted his teethes.

_THAT'S OUR BODY! OUR BODY! BLOODY FOUL USE DISINTEGRATION!_

The Duchess didn't stop at the air blades, which she seemed to know how to cast like nothing, but turned her wand against Louise once more, producing an air hammer. This time, Artos barely managed to intercept it midway, by conjuring quickly a medium air elemental, who took the force of the blow head on.

A strange creature resembling a tornado stood now in the middle between the Duchess and a traumatized Louise, the table in pieces, Eleonore near Cattleya who had fainted, while Artos himself was moving, albeit bleeding, to stand in front of Louise.

"Duchess! Have you gone insane!" as Artos yelled that, the Duchess finished chanting once more.

_TELL HIM TO FUCKING ATTACK!_

The medium air elemental looked surprised when the wind itself twirled around him, and then, he felt pain, as if slashes had been appearing from nowhere, cutting at his air body, dispersing him.

"Since I do not want to destroy the manor, I've reduced the size for the moment." As the miniature Cutter Tornado was launched forward, Artos barely managed to grab Louise gritting his teethes, and after closing her inside an Otiluke Force sphere, throwing her out of the window. The last thing she saw, as she fell on the soft grass rolling backwards, was the cutter tornado impacting with Artos' back.

The tornado didn't manage to tear to shred his clothing completely, reinforced by magic, but it did manage to push him outside too, thankfully the dining room was at ground level, so all he got was heavy bruises as his body impacted against the grass of the garden.

Artos panted as he stood up.

_Damn. I don't want to kill her._

…

_Answers?_

…

_Where are you?_

…

_You're enjoying this._

…

The Duchess, Karin *the Heavy Wind* levitated over the broken glass, wielding her wand with anger;

"Please, your majesty, do not put yourself on the receiving end of my wand. It's meant for Louise," the Duchess muttered, Louise was watching the scene from inside the sphere, which seemed to have no means of opening up.

"She's going to kill him! RUN ARTY RUN!" but it didn't seem like she was being heard.

_That Idiot! RUN! She's in the sphere, she's invulnerable!_

_What?_

_This sphere can only be dispelled, and not destroyed._

_Why isn't he leaving then?_

_Because if he does, then you'll be mentally scarred for life, you know, mother wanting to kill you is one of the best excuses Emos need to become Emo._

…

"I'm not going to say that all mothers love their children." Arty muttered, "I lived long enough to know it isn't true; but I do not believe you want to kill her, even though you are attacking with the intent to kill."

"She broke the rules of steel: Two at those! Never leave the country without permission, and never become useless!" As Karin muttered those words, she then added, "If she's going to die in war, better if I kill her myself!" as she moved her wand precisely, three air blades appeared to slash at the King of Necros.

"I understand…then I'll be serious too." A movement of the hand later and the three air blades disappeared, as Artos drew Derflinger, finally.

"_No time to waste. No place to hide. Grant me time, to think for mine." _ Artos chanted as two more air blades tried to carve deeply into his chest, but as Derflinger strangely glowed, the magic was absorbed, and it didn't seem to faze him from concentrating, and then, Artos was no longer there in front of them.

_Stopping time? Now?_

_Where did he go?_

_Probably planning something._

Karin looked around, realizing too late that an armored white and golden knight had been charging at her from the right, Derflinger shone brightly, aflame like never before.

"FINALLY!" the blade howled as the Gandalfr finally used him as he was meant to be used.

Karin slightly moved backwards, thrusting her wand forward, powered with a slight Air magic to double as a sword. The two weapons parried each other's, but Karin swiftly renounced the block, side stepping to cast an Air hammer, while Artos himself threw Derflinger upwards, impacting against the air hammer and closing in with his shoulder first, throwing Karin backwards by the impact, while she ducked to the side, she avoided a piercing blow from the Wizard, who still pushed forward, forcing her to move backwards, like he had received the best of the trainings. Louise stared in awe at the melee skills of Arty, who were on par, if not superior yet, to those of her mother, Karin the heavy wind herself!

"Didn't think…" Karin had tried to speak, but instead, the man left her no space to maneuver, he simply moved closer, and closer, darting the sword in his hand like it was a part of him, without unnecessary movements, like the finest of warriors. Was he really the King of Necros? Still, she had no choice but throw weakest versions of the spells, as they were quick enough to be thrown while parrying and dodging the attacks coming at with fierce ferocity, one after the other, her right hand was beginning to shake; she cursed her foolishness of having attacked while being dressed with pretty clothes and jewelry. She had simply acted based on instincts, motherly or not, and that had proven stupid. The white armored knight charged forward, swinging the sword like it was a weightless feather, but with unheard precision, as it was aiming at a precise thing from the very beginning: her wand.

She had to get away long enough to cast her cutter tornado once more, but the warrior simply wouldn't allow it, on the other hand the Duchess was still in top form, and swiftly dodged blows. It was going to be a thing of stamina among the two, unless someone would intervene, but Eleonore was watching the scene shocked like never before, while Cattleya had fainted.

"_Come my minions rise for your master! Let your evil shine!"_ as Louise muttered those words, her hands moving in precise ways she had never seen before, as something inside her soul wanted to come out, a pair of strange, small creatures, with black leathery wing appeared, and being conjured straight from behind her mother, they flew upwards, attaching themselves to her with a wicked glee, and that distraction, well, that was all the knight needed to let Derflinger fall down and snap the wand in two.

The wand snapped, and Karin, the Heavy wind, fell on the ground, panting and sweating.

"My win." The white knight murmured, before the armor disappeared, and Derflinger returned, albeit saddened by his only so little appearance, in his scabbard.

"I never thought…to be defeated without magic." As the Duchess muttered that, Artos laughed as he held his right hand in front of him to bring her up. Both hadn't realized or even seen the creatures, so Louise stared surprised, as the imp-like creatures moved closer to her, gleefully smiling, before disappearing into puffs of smoke.

_Interesting._

_What?_

_He didn't realize the Shadow Evocation._

_The what?_

_Nothing important for now._

"I might need a healer though, defeated or not, you were a worthy adversary," as Artos said that with a smile, something inside of him realized there had to be something wrong, but he couldn't quite get it into him, thus, he simply forgot about it.

No need worrying.

_Worthy? He didn't want to kill her. Trust me, your mother would have been destroyed and turned to ash in a blink._

…_I'm afraid._

_You should actually. We are pretty scary; our presence on the battlefield has routed even the hardest of foes._

_You fought many wars?_

_We *are* still at wars._

_With who?_

_S:THE GODS AHAHAHAHA!_ __

_B: Shut up you…well, people._

Louise was puzzled, but suddenly the sphere popped away, and when it did so, she ran quickly next to Arty, who stared at her with a wide and happy smile.

"Your mother wasn't meaning to kill you; she just wanted to maim you enough to avoid sending you to war; brutal, but effective…at least in her eyes. Otherwise, it was also a mean to check on your strength, but I interrupted it, it seems, since after all, she was going to aim for maiming…can't tolerate that."

"Mother…" Louise muttered looking with two round big eyes at her mother, who looked back with a slight growl.

"I still don't think you're suited for war, Louise. But as long as you'll stick with King Artos, you should be fine." As Karin muttered that, she did her best to resume a lady-like appearance, albeit much of her dress was now either tattered or in ruins.

"Yes mother." Louise nodded, "but what about father?" she asked then.

"I'll speak with him tomorrow, you go to sleep now. Don't break another rule now, me and the King have much to discuss." As she snapped back in her normal tone, Louise nodded and hurried away, after a brief look at Artos' wounds, which seemed to be in the process of closing by themselves.

"I understand I have just broken one of my own rules, attacking your majesty with fury, so I will take whatever punishment you will deem necessary to mend the situation." as the Duchess said that, Arty sighed, snapping his fingers as Karin's clothes turned back to their original state.

"Fine then, the most befitting punishment I may think of, is for you to call me *Arty*, I hate being called with titles…" as he said that with a small smile, Karin thanked the founder she was already married, and with three daughters, for that smile would have melted a mountain of ice.

"I understand. Would you care to join me for a drink in my studio…Arty?"

"It would be an honor," as he said that, he followed in silence the woman.

Something was still ticking him off, on something, but he couldn't get it, it was like something was…moving.

***Necros***

"WE'VE GOT THE BASTARDS!" the Death knight yelled, as his stead reached the back of the fleeing soldiers, taking them down without mercy or thoughts. The other pursuers took to their job too. Finally, the last human defiance was removed just as the first of the pursuers saw the sun rise over the sea in front of him...the other side had been reached, and conquered.

"Banner Holder! The banner!" the captain yelled, and once more, prince Wales pierced the ground with the banner of the city of Necros.

"Good…today is a good day. The last humans are destroyed or turned to our causes; their bodies will serve us well. To think these things were so damn effective," saying that, he looked at the gun he now had taken in his hand from his belt.

"Nifty things your country can do, huh? Well, soon it will be *our* country, but it's a different thing never the less," as the captain said that, the prince stood silent, until the banner finished corrupting the ground around them.

"Leave the banner there as a warning. This is the end of the run; from East to West, Necros rules. Now from north to south, we will march"

As the prince couldn't do nothing but get back in formation and mount his skeletal horse, he really hoped that, somewhere, Henrietta was safe.

***Halkeginia-Magic Academy-One week later***

Professor Colbert awoke to the light of the day, finally, after a long time spent in the darkness. He had no recollection of what he had been doing till then, he really had no idea. He simply woke up, realizing he was sleeping in his bed, next to a female laying form. He had a single thought running across his mind: he now actually had a girlfriend, who even accepted to marry him. Problem was he had no idea who it was.

He just felt compelled to move towards her; to court her and finally to confess to her...just as he stood up, to get dressed, the feminine figure revealed herself with a smile, a nice cleavage and with a seductive voice she muttered in a slight Germanian accent:

"My Jean."

At that moment, Professor Colbert began running again.

While he ran for his life, and to avoid prison probably, someone else was harshly training with weights. The problem wasn't that the weights were bright pink, or of a small quantity. The problem was that the user of said weight was a pink haired girl as flat as a board could ever be, and she was doing so while avoiding her best to go to the lessons of the musketeers, who had taken over the academy to train the remaining students for the upcoming invasion. She had been permitted that after having no more than three words with the Headmaster, which will, for integrity, be resumed with: "Arty offered better".

Near the Vestri courtyard, practically deserted at that hour of the morning, Louise was training, strange thoughts circling in her mind as she did so.

_Five. Four. Three. Nine hundred and two. Nine hundred and one._

_You messing with me?_

_I got found out it seems. So, first thing you do before entering a room?_

_Search for traps, search for magic, search for undead._

_Why the latter?_

_Incorporeal creatures are usually undead. Could lie under the wall floor._

_Ethereal and non-material differences?_

_The first is attacked by force magic, or Ghost-touch weaponry. The second is usually dispersed with a gust of wind._

_Fifty-two, fifty-one._

_I've already finished this set._

_Good, now you can start running then._

Louise dropped the weights, panting as her arms' muscles were sore, and stiff, but she didn't stop. Her legs came next, and, albeit already sweating heavily from the weight lifting, she began doing laps around the academy. It wasn't difficult to understand: She had to train, and if she didn't train they'd mess her brain until she did, actually, train.

At the second lap, she fell down, laying face down to catch her breath.

"Damn." She muttered, cursing her weak and frail body. She was training to be stronger, but still she hadn't even managed to run till the third lap, her physique was simply that much frail? She did her best, but maybe she actually was a zero to begin with…

_Stop self-pitying you. You're weak? Become strong._

_Easy to say for you._

_I wasn't born strong. I became strong._

_I don't even get to rest in my sleep. A nap would be nice._

_In the time you sleep, an assassin can kill ten targets, a soldier can fight off an army, a wizard can destroy two towns and a Cleric can heal a country._

"I got it" she muttered, standing back up.

_Lessons are soon, go wash yourself._

_Yes, sir._

The lessons Basileus was referring to weren't with the normal professors, but with Artos himself, who, having grabbed a wand from the Headmaster's personal collection, had with an ease close to no one, begun adapting his magic style to theirs.

They didn't actually decide on counting him in their element magic system, because doing so would have meant calling him a sixteen point star class mage. Since he had no problem converting from one to the other, it would have seemed stupid. Yet, he now had the opportunity to teach it back to Louise, and Louise, obviously able also to use the arcane energy conversion, had come to an understanding: she could become stronger than Artos, because Artos himself couldn't use the void spells, but she could, and she could learn both the arcane and her own elements. That thought alone drove her forward. She was maybe the only pupil who could hope to defeat her master, maybe. The maybe standing on a really thin line between utter madness and complete suicidal desire, but still…a maybe is not a never.

When Louise entered the classroom, that had been assigned to them, she saw just for a brief moment a flash of green exiting from the window, as Arty himself stood there, with a strange smile on his face, Louise narrowed her eyes, something in her guts, since feminine instincts were barred from her, it seemed, making her irk.

"Arty," she muttered, moving behind the Wizard, who seemed lost in thoughts as he watched a cloaked figure leave by horse the gate of the academy, nobody stopping her, or recognizing her, "who was that?"

"My fleeting relation." He replied; his mind lost in a sort of dream world.

_Slap him back to his senses please._

Sure enough, Louise's slap came with a certain glee, bringing the seasoned wizard back into the real world.

"Oh, Louise! Good, today we begin Fire element dot spells." As he said that, going to the center of the classroom, he clapped his hands, concentrating.

"I want you to concentrate on fire, Louise. Think fiery thoughts, anger, things you normally associate with fire, like pepper, or red or burning wood, or flames themselves. Then, pronounce the incantation while keeping your eyes closes, and keep the thought of flames ever…" he didn't finish the sentence, because a fireball departed immediately from Louise's wand, hitting him, but doing, obviously, no damage.

"Excellent!" Arty replied clapping his hand, "I don't get why they called you the Zero." He muttered then, "You seem to be doing pretty fine now."

"Well…I didn't have you as a teacher."

_Nor you guys._

_S:Aww, she's making me happy inside. Can we keep her?_

_B:…sarcasm?_

_S: The only feeling a Demilich may feel at 100%_

_L:You're an ass._

_S:Actually I'm a skull._

_Badum-tss-tss._

_L:Is that a drum in my head?_

_B:Never will I admit I'm a fan of Death-Metal._

_S:Figures, that was to be expected, right?_

_L:Nevermind._

"Well then, let's proceed on with the next assignment: Combination spells."

***Halkeginia-Two Weeks later-La Rochelle departure***

"Cardinal, I don't like this." Henrietta muttered, looking at how the flagship had its interiors practically broken up to make place to what looked more like a royal bedroom than the under deck of a ship.

Agnes, her bodyguard, was there, together with her four most trusted subordinates, they were thinking the same thing as the Queen, but dared not to speak.

"Your highness, this is the flagship of the fleet, it must ensure the minimum standards for the upcoming generals, who have the decks immediately below your highness" the Cardinal dully noted.

"I find it's a waste of space," as the Queen replied, someone else chuckled behind them.

The musketeers suddenly turned around, weapons in hand, while Agnes let her hand go to the handle of her pistol; Henrietta turned in surprise too, just in time to see the King of Necros enter with a wide smile on his face, Louise following him silently.

He was wearing white and golden trimmed robes, the symbol of the clawed hand replaced by that of a pigeon, with a sword in its beak. The problem lay with Louise, who had instead no longer her normal Magic academy of Tristain student clothing *tm*, but was wearing a more fitting dark brown leather jacket, underneath which the trims of a light brown shirt were visible, and she no longer had a skirt, but a pair of blackish trousers. All in all, it was a tomboy appearance the like of which Henrietta had never seen her friend wear in all her life.

"I must say, I was thinking the same thing." As Arty said that moving closer, the musketeers stood aside, holstering their weapons, except for Agnes who still kept her hand on the gun for safety.

"How did you get in here?" the Cardinal asked surprised, and, at that moment, a floating eye appeared right next to his head.

"What he sees, I see. Arcane Eye is the name of the spell," Arty replied with a chuckle, "and I liked the Queen's words; she's actually right. This is as much a flagship as it is safe: it's more likely it will be the primary target and will then be utterly destroyed in the first skirmishes."

"I see, then, Lord Artos…" as the Queen began, Arty raised a hand, looking at her with a stare that said it all, "Arty," Henrietta corrected herself, a bit blushing, "what would you suggest doing then?" the King moved towards the center of the room, lost in thought.

"Louise?" he asked to the girl, who stared a bit before muttering:

"One could try and use wards to reinforce the structure, spells to harden the wood, turning it into metal, but that would probably bring forth buoyancy problems, and an increase in the wind stones consumption. Since we do not wish for that, the only thing we can do is to repair the ship to its basic status and then reinforce key structural points, possibly adding fire protection in the areas where gunpowder is stashed." Louise spoke slowly, her right hand moving to her chin in a sort of comical imitation of the Wizard himself. Henrietta stared at her friend in silence, thinking about what could have happened to make her change so much, probably the presence of the King himself? Still, Arty muttered back:

"How would we proceed then?"

"Cost-effective, time-effective or best-effective?" Louise replied back.

"Second, First, and third for last." As Arty replied like that, Louise nodded, before speaking once more:

"Alchemy spells could be used with iron bullets or extra iron weapon's supplies to reinforce the frame; it would be crude but quick. Moving the weight to the upper levels would also provide an increase of stability as long as it's perfectly leveled."

"Louise Françoise, are you alright?" Henrietta asked, surprised by such a display of…emotionless?

"Yes your majesty, everything is fine." As Louise replied with a curtsy, which came a bit strange considering she wore trousers, Henrietta mentally decided to ask her later.

"But this…" the Cardinal wanted to say something, but after a simple stare from the Queen, the King and the la Vallière girl, who still was the daughter of the Duke, he decided not to question anything and bow before leaving in a hurry. He wasn't going to stay around any longer than necessary, oh no.

"Louise, proceed." As the King of Necros muttered, the pink-haired girl nodded.

"He's a good guy, a bit too pressed on duty, but he isn't evil," Arty commented then, seeing how Henrietta had been staring at the Cardinal's back, "a copper coin for your thoughts?" he asked to the Queen with a smile, while Louise had already grabbed her wand, and was staring, like lost in thought, at the best way to begin.

"I…I need to ask you something, Arty." Henrietta replied, turning her gaze to the Wizard, who stared at her with a smile, "More than one thing, actually." As Louise began chanting the Alchemy spell to move the weight of the wooden structure from down below to upstairs, and merge together the iron from the nails with the exterior of the ship, Henrietta stared for a moment in silence at the sight. Sure, it was a basic alchemy spell, but it had covered the ENTIRE ship.

"She suddenly decided she wanted to be trained in your magic system, since I closed her off mine…therefore she's been showing increasing optimal attitudes at *Void* magic, and general non-elemental spells." Arty filled her in, as even Agnes muttered something like *Founder's glory*.

"I see…Agnes, could you leave us alone?" as the queen asked, Agnes nodded, usually she would have refused, but she just felt it would be trifle for the man to make a hand gesture, and put everyone to sleep. The voices of his strength and his display of power at Tarbes had already branded him as the Founder's reborn, the fact he was a foreign king had branded him later on as the Founder's chosen, and when he had revealed the foul play of the king of Gallia, and had swapped him in a one-day revolution without deaths, he had been actually branded the Destroyer of Evil and Corruption.

As the musketeers left, Louise panted slowly, placing her wand back in her pocket, she moved closer to Arty, and grabbed his arm strongly, staring at the Queen with a look like she was meaning *he's mine*.

"Louise Françoise?" Henrietta asked, shocked by such a display of…ferocity?

"Yes, your majesty?" Louise asked back, without worrying.

"What are you doing…?" Louise Françoise had never been so much direct in something she liked, while she was direct in some things, she usually never, ever, would have done something like that, normally at least.

"I'm holding his arm because I like to," Louise replied, with a slight grin. Henrietta reddened fiercely, and blushed; now she faced a problem with the King, but Arty didn't even seem to bother, since he seemed more interested in the conversation exchange between the two.

"Arty, might I ask you what happened?" Henrietta queried, puzzled.

"Well…it seems that there's something *unbalancing* me, and that by staying at a touch contact, it rebalances the issue. She didn't want to say more, and thus I didn't force her to. Maybe she's just trying to come out from her shy shell," the last sentence was whispered by Arty with a smile and his right eyelid blinked for a second.

"So…when will we depart?" Louise queried, looking at both Arty's and Henrietta's face.

_Good girl. See? You can become useful and serious if you want to._

_It sucks to be trained at night though. _

_Can't do much about it, eye bags are a secondary problem right now._

_Well, since we will be on the ship for the three days travel, I might be able to recuperate._

_Good, plan ahead always to ensure that what you wish for gets executed._

_Understood._

_S: You're no fun, you know? Why so serious?_

_L: Basileus, smack him for me._

_B: Already on it._

_S: Ehi, wha…where did you get that staff? No ehi, I'm NOT A BASEBALL BALL!_

_Smack-Thud-roll. HIGHSCORE!_

_L:Stop playing in my head now._

Louise sighed. It had been two long weeks. Two very longs weeks in which she had dreamed of the vortex of negative energy and arcane powers, of the void powers she could possess if she trained, and of the mental training inside her soul, with the Lich and the Demilich, who had trained her with the help of the Founder's prayers book, which, as they correctly hunched, held Void spells, ready for the use.

The problem with training in her soul meant that she actually didn't sleep, as she woke up every time in sweat, or worst, with bruises when the training's began something else entirely. Sfor taught her of the arcane energies, of the darkness, of how the magic flows free of constrictions, and it is but the will of the strongest to make it bow to them, of how Wizards had stolen the spells they cast from the very god in the beginning, wizards being the dragons in the first times, who then taught it to the other races, the gods were fickle from where Sfor came from, fickle creatures who toyed with mortals of any race, making them fight, live, and die, passing through sufferance and other emotions because they didn't want to help, they didn't want to intervene directly; until their seats were challenged, that is.

Basileus was a bit different: he trained her in the use of the staff as a weapon, with imaginary staves, the long sword, and the crossbow and in the use of daggers. She had no idea where or how the Lich had come to use said weapons, and the only answer he had given had been that he had picked up his personal style on the battlefield. Yet she kept on training, because it was needed for her to become useful. To at least prove herself not so unworthy. Sure, she would never, ever, reach the same level of power of Artos, but she could at least reach a decent level, compared to the rest. She could become strong. Strong enough to be called something else, than the Zero.

She also trained while awake, and the reason she no longer wore skirts was to actually hide the slight toned muscles in her legs, and, considering the quantity of food she had been ingurgitating as of late, a growth spurt wasn't to be taken out of the equation; thus the reason she also had another set of clothing, of a couple size bigger, hidden in her backpack. She'd die rather than reveal to anyone their existence, but she had them. Worst to worst she could use them as improvised bandages or something else.

The Queen, Henrietta, finished speaking about how it was improper behavior, but Louise didn't listen that at all, instead, asking again:

"When are we departing, your majesty?"

"Louise Françoise! I said you should remove yourself from Arty's arm now, it's not proper!" Henrietta furiously snapped back at her headstrong friend.

"If you want you can hold his other arm" Louise replied with a chuckle.

"Françoise!" the queen muttered shocked, before seeing Arty join the chuckle, and actually offering up his arm.

"If it pleases you, Henrietta, I do have an extra arm." The Queen pouted for a moment; then smiled with a grin, grabbing hold of the other arm.

"If it pleases Arty, then so be it," As she did that, her breasts were just so casually pressed against said arm, a thing which did not pass unnoticed by Louise, who said nothing however, but held tighter once more.

"Your majesty Henrietta, back to the question: when do we depart?" Louise asked once more.

"Well, Louise Françoise, we depart when I give the order, and I'd like to do so with Arty here present too."

"Then we're going to have a problem your majesty, because I am *not* letting him go." Louise retorted.

"While I find refreshing to see your feelings out in the air, Louise Françoise, I beg of you to reconsider the situation at hand" Henrietta muttered, looking at the pink-haired girl with a determined gaze.

"I plead her Highness to reconsider too, since Arty *is* in a relationship." Saying that, Henrietta left the Wizard's arm, the still a bit innocent queen shocked from having tried on a, in her eyes, married man.

"Oh…with whom?" as the Queen asked, and Arty was about to reply, Louise pulled with strength Artos' arm down, then kicking him on the right leg, she actually managed a wrestling move that would have made the Undertaker proud, and pinned him down.

"No one important." Louise replied with a smirk.

_S: My poor body! MY BODY!_

_B: Thank the contract I ain't feeling that._

Henrietta, albeit a bit disturbed by that sudden show of utter tomboyish attitude, simply nodded, and exited the room to give the order for the fleet to depart. She promised to herself and to the founder that she would look into what made Louise Françoise like that, and she would bring her old friend back. She couldn't compete with her otherwise, because she'd certainly win!

***Londinium***

"THANK PELOR" Jeanne exclaimed as she kneeled to kiss the stones that marked the beginning of the road into Londinium.

"May Heironeus be blessed," Cristopher replied, lifting his eyes up in the sky, deeply thanking from the bottom of his heart that it was over.

"Exaggerated reaction." Devon muttered, staring at them with a small grin, "It was just a nice shortcut into the forest."

"Nice shortcut? Nice shortcut. Ahahah! He's funny Cristopher. Really. We cut down three days to go through nearly a month of mud, rain, and insects," Jeanne replied sarcastically.

"Now, now, Jeanne, we did avoid the brigands and the deserters." Cristopher replied, "And the cultists" he added then.

"Precisely, I told you I would bring you here with little problems." Devon nodded, taking out his pipe to ready some tobacco.

"…you said you were out of smoke." Cristopher muttered, looking at the ranger.

"Kids shouldn't smoke." The ranger replied.

"Yeah, but neither should you: it's harmful for your health you know…"

"Kid: An arrow in the gut is harmful for your health, or a sword in your back, but smoke? Smoke ain't killing me, I tell you." As Devon replied that, he then added, "Unless the Shalm decides it's that my way to go, but then, who am I to question the Shalm?"

"So, Cristopher, where should we go now?" Jeanne asked her friend, who nodded, and moved towards the city, and towards the biggest palace in the capital.

"Cristopher, that's the parliament." Jeanne noted.

"I know: we have a meeting with the Leader of the Reconquista, Cromwell himself." As Cristopher said that, Devon snorted at the name, but Jeanne paled a bit.

"You didn't tell me this in a month! An entire month, I mean, I'm all muddy, covered in mud, mud everywhere, I can't go in like…" as she meekly put up excuses, coming to a halt, Cristopher didn't stop.

"The rest are already there, in wait." Devon muttered, "So, no waiting *Jeanne*" as he said that, he pushed her back into moving.

Jeanne was already thinking about how she had gone, in less than a month, from peasant orphan to saint, and now she was even going to speak with Emperor Cromwell himself! She just hoped Pelor would guide her, because she was starting to have doubts she would be fit for the job.

**Author's notes:**

**This chapter does indeed hold more notes and references than the previous ones (I hope). It also holds more Humor.**

**So, as I suppose it's becoming clear, the three lucky *Artos* *Basileus* *Sfor* are all in for a bit of relationship pain. **

**Blinded: the more they come the merrier it becomes! Though I'm using the deity of the core rulebook, and if I recall them correctly, also those of the monster manual 1, so *Mystra* shouldn't make an appearance. **

**Final Notes:**

**Chapters keep getting longer: I like that.**


	11. Chapter 11: Preparations and discoveries

Chapter Eleven

Queen Henrietta was having a problem solving the situation at hand. On one side, she had renounced the Germanian's emperor proposal of marriage, because she had counted of Arty's alliance. On the other side, Arty was actually in a relationship with someone whom Louise seemed dead set on avoiding him revealing the name. Furthermore, her pink-haired friend had changed so much, in so little time, that she couldn't help but think some sort of mind altering drug had come in play. As a skilled water mage, however, she needed to at least touch her for a while, while chanting, to realize if something was wrong. As of the immediate situation, however, she couldn't, because she was having dinner with food she had never seen before in her life, so exotically arranged and so exquisite that she had to rely on all of her self-control to resist the need to ask for seconds, the problem was that the butlers kept on bringing food on platters, different food, different sizes, and it was like they knew, deep down, when she was actually stuffed and when she was refusing because of decency. So they insisted, without words, because the ghostly butlers couldn't talk, but by actually placing more food in her platter, as Arty chuckled. At the same table was seated Cardinal Mazarin, Agnes, her musketeers, the king of Necros, her generals, and Louise. The mansion they had visited had been something out of a dream, a really strange dream, with sharks swimming in pool, and flying chocolate cakes. The garden too had come alive to greet them, and it had been fun to see the cardinal losing his favorite hat to a grass hedge pelican. Just to get it back completely coated in rose's thorns. The musketeers had tried to refuse; they had tried, Agnes even coming to menace with a gun one of the butlers, but they had all miserly failed, because the butlers themselves had forced them to sit down, being immune to gun hits too, as Arty himself had insisted, since in his mansion, everyone was equally his guest. The generals too had simply accepted the deal to be at the same table with the queen's bodyguards, especially after the absolute display of indifference of the La Valliére's daughter, who had sat right next to Artos, and hadn't flinched, instead even passing around the bread, to the commander of the musketeers on her left.

Soon tensions melted, especially because of the various degrees of alcoholic wines brought forward, but also because the general of the Germanian fleet, Handenburg, wasn't a born noble, but had been the son of a merchant, and, once drunk, he had let go of all the formal etiquette, and had begun singing in a really coarse voice a song of sailor's and whores. The problem was that Artos soon had joined him too, and Agnes had joined her voice to the chorus of tone deaf persons. So, Henrietta sat there, biting her lips trying her best not to eat another strange delicacy which smelled awfully nice, and at the same time blushing fiercely when the Cardinal Mazarin, bewildered, began yelling about how they had sung a wrong verse. Louise instead kept her cool for the reminder of the dinner, and, afterwards, they were all gently escorted to the library room, to cool off or doze off, and to speak.

The library was immense, as it held every book Artos himself had ever read, but, while many were easily accessible, others were bound in chains, and guarded by what looked like menacing suites of armor with really scary motifs.

The Cardinal slumped in a sofa, followed by General Wimpffen and General Handenburg, while De Poitiers grabbed an armchair for himself, next to the fire, to start dozing off. Agnes had, strangely, begun looking through the books in the library, while the musketeers remained next to Henrietta, who had shaken her head about sitting, and was instead staring in awe at the height the libraries actually reached: it was like they extended up above, above even the fourth or fifth floor.

"So many books." She whispered, staring at them.

"There are more of them, but they can't be accessed easily, and thus I keep them locked away." Arty replied with a gentle smile.

"I should give you back my gift…I'm sorry I took it from you." Louise muttered, staring sideways, a bit embarrassed in recalling what she had done.

"I know you were simply angry, and I didn't take it personally. Don't worry, you can keep it: I already had a copy." As he said that, he pointed to a book, the same book of crack jokes that suddenly flew upwards, and moved near them.

"I never thought I'd see a flying book." Henrietta whispered, "What language is it written in?" she added, looking at how she couldn't even read the title.

"It's Common tongue, your majesty." Louise replied, "The tongue used in many material planes." However, it was at that moment that Louise realized the time tense used by Arty: he already HAD a copy and he didn't say he actually made one, furthermore, she suddenly realized that the book had indeed been written in common tongue, but she had bought it in Tristania!

"Arty, you already had that book, right? Before I bought it for you." Louise replied.

"Well, yes, it actually had been already gifted to me once." As Arty replied shyly, Henrietta stared with a puzzled look.

_L: Explain._

_B: The book was gifted to us a long time ago, when we were defined *grumpy*. When you brought it to our attention we realized someone was having fun with us._

_L: Who?_

_B: Gods, who else?_

"I understand. Anyway, the principal reason was discussing an assault plan for Albion, right?" Louise queried the queen, who shook herself from the momentary surprise to reply:

"Yes Louise Françoise, we were planning on a diversion fleet to attack the port city of Dartanes while we concentrated the bulk of our strength in Rosais, to capture the city and then aim for Saxe-Gotha, and finally hit Londinium," Henrietta referred the plan that the generals had come up with, a saddened tone in her voice.

"I do not like to wage war on other countries, but there is no choice: they declared it first and they are refusing peace." As she added that, Arty sighed.

"Arty, you could open up a path straight to Londinium, to lower casualties." Louise suggested, earning herself a far more puzzled look from Henrietta.

"I could create a teleportation Circle on a ship, and then through that, troops would automatically be transported to the next teleportation circle, which would be anywhere inside or near the city of Londinium…but I would need time to etch it in the capital, somewhere, and the troops would need to be ready to fight the moment they arrive. I could transport eight troops per time with a circle, as long as they keep a steady flow they might overrun the initial defenses, but if it's heavily guarded, all the enemy need to do is destroy the section of floor the circle is written upon, and then it would be over." Arty replied.

Henrietta stared in surprise at the Wizard, before losing herself in thoughts once more.

"If we were to somehow warn the Albion army of where we intend to strike, that is Rosais or Dartanes, then we could send all our mages through that portal and capture Cromwell. Once he's captured we could have Albion forced into a surrender, with minimum to none bloodshed!"

"Their army is probably already moving to counter our invasion, but still we will need Arty to etch the circle on a ship here, and then travel till Londinium. Afterwards it all depends on us winning against their fleet in the air. If we manage that, with the sixty battleships we have, plus me and Arty, then we can move towards Londinium." Louise commented, "If we were to wear ambassador's clothing furthermore, we'd be granted passage till the city without problems, and then we could always hide thanks to Arty's invisibility, and search for a suitable place." Finishing the thought with a grin, Henrietta stared at her friend biting her lower lip. She had to speak with her in private soon. The normal Louise Françoise would never even have thought about such a plan.

"It could work." Arty replied, "But I could do just the same by going alone with Louise, and then knocking over and capturing Cromwell. There would be no bloodshed at all."

"There might be a problem with those plans: the nobles of Tristain and Germania all hope for a victory that would make them richer in land." Henrietta whispered, staring in embarrassment at the floor.

"I see. It's a pity I will not let them have it their way, then." Arty replied with a grin, looking at Louise.

"Louise, I'll go prepare our fast travel mean towards Londinium, speak with Henrietta, since she's wanted to speak to you in private for hours now." With a final chuckle, the Wizard excused himself.

Henrietta stared shocked at the King of Necros moving away, and then stared at Louise:

"Louise…he may disregard my will and do as he pleases, but you are a noble of Tristain! Certainly you understand that…" but she was cut off when Louise simply slapped her straight in the face. She, who had never been slapped before in all her life, had now been slapped, for the first time, by her friend!

"Your majesty, before being a noble of Tristain, I am your friend, so, I will do what is best, regardless of what others in the nobility want. If they have complains, I'll send them to Arty, or to the other side with my wand. I am no longer the *Zero*, your highness. I am the Dark Void." With those words, Louise turned and left, a cold breeze suddenly passing between Henrietta's soul and heart. She trembled, looking at her friend's back, and at how it seemed to be too far away for her to reach; just what had happened to her friend?

Louise exited the mansion's door, to find Artos standing straight in front of her, on the upper deck of the Varsenda, the ship chosen to hold the *meeting*. The sky was cloudy, as the night had gently taken over the light of the day.

"So?" Arty asked the girl, staring at her with a smile, as his vest sprouted a mantle as white as snow, and a crown as golden as the sun emerged from his head;

"I'm with you Arty, no matter what, I know you'll do the right thing." Louise replied, staring at him with a small grin, "That doesn't the change the fact that I'm going to regret this tomorrow." The pink haired girl added.

Arty laughed, "Everyone regrets something they have done, my dear Louise!" as those words were uttered the Wizard brought his right hand in front of him, staring at the clouds in front of him. Louise moved next to him.

_Oh he's going to summon the dragon._

_The dragon?_

_Yeah, the dragon._

_He's going to call a dragon?_

_No: THE dragon._

"Come, bringer of my will, judge of my testament, devourer of my enemies. Come, first born of the volcanoes, raise your wings to my will, fire molded into form!" as Arty opened his arms, a loud, bellowing roar was heard in all the fleet, and the clouds themselves turned red, for a moment, before two wings bigger than any battleship, flapped forward, soon followed by a majestic body, whose red scales flickered like made of light themselves, the dragon roared as it soared upwards, towards its master, and Arty grinned, as grabbed Louise by the waist, he jumped downwards, leaving a stupefied Henrietta who had come out to pursue the two, to stare in shock, as after jumping down, they found themselves rising above the ships, on the back of giant red dragon, who, with a final roar, moved faster than the ships towards Albion. Louise touched the scales with her hand, as she held hard to Arty's waist.

"THIS IS OUR MEAN OF TRAVEL?" she screamed, to make herself heard, even with the strong wind against them.

"I am *not* a mount, BRAT" the dragon…replied? It flew, it was red, yet it replied, strong enough to be heard.

"She didn't mean it like that, friend." Arty replied with another laugh.

"He's spe…" speaking, she wanted to say, but she bit her tongue, that would be wrong to say.

_Good, you're starting to understand when to talk and when not to._

_It would have been wrong to act surprised, right?_

_It would have been a sign of weakness and ignorance. Ignorance is Weakness._

_S: Weakness is weakness, no matter what._

_B: …I find myself to agree with Sfor on this one._

_S: AH!_

"I am the first born of the fiery volcanoes of the Fertek! The devourer of orcs! So, Artos, king of Necros, the city of the everlasting dead, have you brought my usual payment?" as he roared that into the night sky, Arty smiled and nodded in silence.

"Good to know!" as the red dragon replied with a fierce fiery grin, Louise couldn't help but ask herself how the dragon had spotted the wizard simply nodding.

She had other questions however, which were being queried in her mind.

_Everlasting dead? And what's the usual payment?_

_He's the devourer of orcs, guess his payment what it will be?_

_But you don't have orcs with you!_

_Doesn't matter, there are orcs in Albion, right? _

_Well yes, also as mercenaries…wait. You're offering them!_

_If it was me, I'd have offered them, but it's Arty we're talking about, so he conned him into accepting without looking first at the prize, so now he'll have to hunt them on his own. In this way, orcs survive and the red dragon is pissed at us and we can't use him anymore._

_You have yet to answer my first question. *Everlasting dead*? _

_Well… I suppose it means that there are dead people who ever last._

_You're trying to ignore my question: it's not going to work any longer. You also *did* mention a certain necromancer streak in Sfor._

_S: Was I called in? I have risen from my slumber! _

_B: No, you were not. Well, what do you want? The truth? We *might* raise some bodies to do our bidding, but it's not like they aren't *volunteering* for it._

_L: Raising the dead? You can conjure undead?_

_S: CONJURE! We can conjure them, create them, empower them and make them special: we've got our own breeds! WE are the best with the undead. We do have a *special* feeling with them after all._

_B: That's why you should have kept your damn mouth close Sfor._

_L: You two are…undeads. Arty is an undead too?_

_B: Welcome to Obvious facts! First obvious fact is: no, he's alive; he's warm considering how you're holding tightly to his waist I say you can understand it. Second fact: I'm a rotting corpse and Sfor is a flying skull, what could we have been?_

_S: I could have been a demon entrapped into a skull, flying around a nameless one guy._

_B: Ignore him._

_S: WHAT!_

_L: So…you're undeads. Evil, dark, broody, undeads._

_S: The best there is._

_B: Well, yes._

_L: …I don't know what to think._

_B: Then don't; let things go as they are, stick to the plan and everything will be fine, as the pebbles align, and the circle is done, the truth will come._

_S: And *I* was the one with talking issues._

_B: I love muttering prophecies, got a problem with that?  
S: Oh no, I don't._

_L: What are you talking about?_

_B: Not going to tell you, yet. _

_L: I'm not sure who to trust._

_S: Then trust no one, and act on what you see._

_L: I'll do that then...but that would mean trusting your word on the matter…so wha…_

_S: I'm in love with her stupidity._

_B: Come on, she's making progresses._

Louise stopped to reply to the two voices in her head, even though it was hard to ignore them speaking about her progresses, or her stupidity gauge, and things like that. She tried, however, and in the end, their voices quieted down.

As she looked back in front of her, she could see it faintly, at the horizon, the dawn coming up, and floating above the clouds, but under them, the tiny dot which was growing with size with every batting of the dragon's wings, Albion, was appearing once more. The dragon was fast not because he was inherently fast, like Sylphid, but because he was colossal, and the extra speed was his natural stamina, enabling him to flap his wings for longer times, instead of simply gliding.

She had instinctively grabbed Arty's waist, her right cheek pressing against his chest side, to avoid the biting frost of the wind.

"It is cold." She whimpered, as her nose began running, it also froze on the spot, making her look like she had icicles stuck right there.

"Come over here then." Arty whispered, covering her under his white mantle for the most part, "Should keep you warm until we arrive."

"Never thought you'd be a softie Artos." The dragon bemusedly spoke, "I recall your utter uncaring for your allies during the winter wars in the tundra's."

"Those were different allies, furthermore, they were wizards perfectly capable of casting Contrast Elements, if they didn't and preferred to die from the cold then it was their own decision." Artos replied calmly.

"You may fool lesser beings, Artos, but you cannot fool me; still, I'm not going to interrupt your fun. In the end, everything moves towards what its destined path is." As the Dragon grinned, with a couple of final, strong, wing pushes, they were over Albion.

The Albion's fleet, who had moved into a blockade like section, never knew what hit them, well, actually they did. Their scout ships, fast and nimble battleships with little protection, saw a red fiery dragon, bigger than anything they had ever seen before, and then, they saw fire. Exploding into fragments, the dragon soared through the burning and exploding ships, making its own path straight through. The moment of panic and trauma was soon replaced by anger, as the ships began firing cannonballs, one after the other, while the Albion's dragoon launched all they had in magic against it. The problem was that the cannon balls were deflected by the thick scales of the beast, who grinned evilly as it snatched a dragoon for a moment in his jaws, and with a sickening crunch made it into a snack. With a deafening roar the dragoon's mounts dispersed, realizing that no matter what, it wasn't worth it. As the platoons broke up, the dragon aimed for a battleship bigger than the other with a wicked grin.

"Food in a box!" it roared with a wide and scary chuckle, as its front paws flung themselves forward, grabbing the ship and pulling it down with full strength, before tearing it apart, and spewing flames in the crack, making it literally explode within his hands.

With an evil laugh, it finally left the terrorize blockade, moving into the island's air space.

"So, which city must I burn to the ground, King of Necros?" the dragon asked after a while, seeing little glints of light in the horizon.

"None, you are…dismissed." As the dragon, for the first time, stared in surprise, he was suddenly snapped away from that dimension itself, and Louise found herself held by Arty's arm, flying above the floating continent.

"What did you do!" Louise exclaimed, holding herself tightly to the Wizard, to avoid falling.

"I summoned him, thus I could bane him back to his plane of existence whenever I wanted. Now let's move. Londinium awaits." As he whispered that, he began descending on the floating continent, keeping a low flying altitude, Louise on his shoulders, as a shroud of invisibility covered them both.

"By the way, I'll need a full day's rest before beginning with the plan, you'll have to guard me while I sleep; it's fine?" Arty casually asked.

"Don't worry: I've got your back." Louise replied, blushing slightly, since she actually was touching his back.

The rest of the trip, done by Arty's flying spell, passed in silence, as they slowly descended nearby the city of Saxe-Gotha, in a small rural town, that had a wooden warning mentioning how this was the town of Westwood, where Arty removed the invisibility, and began walking.

The thought of the dragon's ease in crushing a blockade lingered for a moment into Louise's head, but another thought, soon removed, made her think, for a brief instant, about how it would have been better, if she had been the one summoning the dragon.

Arty seemed to know where he was going, because, as some little boys and girls moved out of their houses to stare at the duo, especially at the strange man who had a crown and a white mantle, he took a straight turn towards a bit on the side of the village, where a small wooden cottage stood. Louise stared for a moment at the wizard, before muttering:  
"Arty; I've got a question."

"Yes?" the Wizard asked back.

"Why didn't we teleport to Newcastle? Why did we have to use a dragon to break a barricade?"

"Fear saves lives, Louise. Many, afraid of other dragons like those, will most likely yield than fight, and thus, their lives will be spared." As Arty pointed that out, a chuckle came from behind the duo.

Louise turned, wand raised, just in time for Arty to push her wand down, and make her stare at the green haired woman.

"Fouquet!" Louise exclaimed, seeing the woman, and a younger girl with a wide white hat next to her.

"Sister Mathilda, you know them?" the blonde haired girl asked, holding some wood in front of her, that, once Arty had obviously taken from to show his knightly attitude, revealed a broad chest, the size of which was unachievable even by the Zerbst's standards.

"Always a knight, Arty." Fouquet, or how her name really was, Mathilda, giggled staring at him with a small smile, before giving him a kiss on the side of the cheek.

"So he's the man you've fallen…" the blond girl wanted to say, but a stare from the woman made her silence, and blush.

"Tiffania, this is Artos, Artos, this is Tiffania, my young sister. Why are you and…the brat, here?" she asked once more, as she invited them both into Tiffania's house.

"Well…it's a long story, after the revolution of Gallia, now it's time to revolutionize Albion too." As Artos said that, Louise stared at him in surprise, wasn't their plan to…

_B: Oh ninth circle of hells no._

_S: For the love of all that is skeletal._

_L: What?_

"You really intend to do that?" Mathilda asked again seriously, staring at him, and then at … Tiffania? Louise muttered:

"Arty, hum…how can I say it…what are we…"

"We are putting on the throne of Albion the rightful last descendant of the Albion's royalty, Tiffania Tudor." Arty replied seriously, as the young girl fainted, and Mathilda sighed.

Louise instead, simply stared.

_WHAT! WHAT! WHAT THE …_

_S: Calm down, take a deep breath and think about the ponies._

_L: I DON'T CARE! BUTCHER THE PONIES AND EXPLAIN!_

_B: Listen to…him/us, and you'll know it soon enough._

"Well, as Mathilda explained, Tiffania here is the daughter of the youngest brother of the previous king of Albion, who was an archduke at the palace, and the accountant. She was born of a mistress and thus is a … well…"

"A bastard child," Mathilda went on explaining, "But without any other heirs, she is, after all, the remaining royalty of Albion. When Arty spoke about how he would have preferred to bring a rightful heir on the throne…well…I told him of Tiffania."

Louise stared at the green haired woman, then at the fainted girl.

"Proof. I want a proof. She could be conning you Arty! I mean, she's a thief!"

"I trust her word, Louise. She gave proof enough, furthermore, while I'm at it, this is hers." Saying that, Arty removed from inside one of his pockets a carillon box, how it actually fitted in the pocket was another of the Wizard's tricks, but still, Mathilda stared at the box with a slight warm smile.

"Where was it?" she asked, emotions betraying her face as her eyes turned watery.

"In the Gallian's treasury; you wouldn't believe what else I found in there…" as he said that, he removed a couple of objects from his hand, which Louise stared for a moment.

"Wait! That's the Founder's censer! And that is the Founder's music box…just…and that's the wind ruby of Albion!" she nearly screeched, seeing so many void things appearing from Arty's pocket.

"Oh, I found them all in the Gallian's treasury actually."

Something, at that moment, tore into Louise.

_S: Oh this is bad._

_B: Bad like a solar coming with some lube?_

_S: Really bad, like my relationship coming here for me._

_B: OH SHIT: EMERGENCY, ALL HANDS ON DECK! PREPARE THE COUNTERMEASURES! _

Louise didn't have the time to reply, as she suddenly felt pulled on the ground, darkness enveloping her vision, and then, she outright fainted there.

***Londinium ***

Cromwell received his guests alone. The reason he was actually alone was that his secretary, Sheffield, had gone missing since a couple of weeks, and was nowhere to be found. That, added with the sudden change of ruler of Gallia had brought him to seriously start thinking about peace. Until he had received a vision in his dreams, to call forth people who had a faith different from that of the founder, those *chosen* ones would bring forth a new age for him. Therefore, he had obeyed, sending out pamphlets, people, messengers, and he had found the first one, a bulky barbarian of Albion's forest, who yelled of the might of Kord to his fellow tribesman. Then, they had found a group of strangely clad in leather man, who preached of nature and of Elhonna, a certain goddess of nature, in what the messenger had deemed to inform him was the most *Dark patch of jungle the Founder had ever created in his action*. Then, many had flocked into the city among the guards, calling themselves the chosen of Heironeus. Others had begun worshipping a certain Pelor, because a Saint had appeared in the nearby areas, and it had also solved the problem of the rampaging monsters around the outskirts of the countryside. They would have been branded as heretics, normally, but the problem had been that, their prayers were actually answered by something, or someone.

So he had no choice but renounce the church, while not openly saying that, he had still called for a meeting with those gods *chosen ones* and was now waiting, on the day he had been told they would arrive, in his office; Alone.

The door slowly opened, as his new secretary, a small man with a sleazy grin, bowed, warning him of the visitors he had been waiting.

"Let them in." Cromwell said, taking a deep breath; why did he have to be so nervous? Well, he had just been a local chaplain, and then, after a night of drunken feasts, he had found himself with powerful allies, and had become the chief of the Reconquista. Yet the founder had failed them, and an undead plague had scourged the land, many had seen it as a sign of the founder's anger, but the propaganda had managed to value it as a dirty last resort from the previous royalty.

What he hadn't expected was seeing a thirteen year old girl walk in, covered in dry mud for the most part, red hair barely distinguishable on her head, with strong green eyes, followed by a fifteen year old in a muddied armor, and both had behind them what looked like an old hunter.

They weren't alone however, as soon after they entered, the door swung open again, and the Kord barbarian strode in with a loud laughter, muscles in plain view and no idea of decency, his hair bright blonde, his eyes blue, and he was swiftly followed by a strange looking guy with a book chained to his right hand, who looked on the verge of a coughing fit, with pale skin and brown hair with hazel eyes. Finally, the door closed, and as Cromwell was about to speak, it swung open once more, as a stocky, bearded thing made his way inside clad in steel. It spoke like a thunder and his voice was coarser than any heard before:

"FOR MORADIN! Where's my axe, my precious Brojnlir, going to strike? Come on Tall guys! Who's got my beer for Moradin!" as he said that, Cromwell stared in shock.

Just…where had he come in from?

His secretary stormed the room, panting heavily, looking a bit, well, ruffed up.

"Emperor Cromwell! I'm sorry. He simply barged in, this…this."

"Careful there!" the dwarf replied, the axe's handle at the ready.

"No need to be flustered, I presume this should be…" as he was about to say *everyone* he muttered a slow curse to himself, as the window opened, to let in a most earnest child, who smiling and waving to everyone made its way with the rest of the group:

"Halfling Zick Fast-feet at your service! Olidammara is ready to roll today!" as he beamed that, the child actually looked like a full-fledged man, except for his small size, he had blackish hair, but blue eyes, and seemed unable to stand still more than a second.

"So…I presume you're all here, now." Cromwell sighed then slowly looked around for a moment, before muttering "Founder's forgive me if there's another one coming in while I'm explaining. Please, take a seat." As Cromwell said that, pointing to the set of chairs around a round table, many sat, but some, especially the boy with the armor, excused themselves saying they would probably creak and destroy the chair.

The dwarf first destroyed the chair and then stayed up though, swiftly followed by the barbarian who did the same.

"So…I take it you are the chosen of the gods…right?" the emperor was sweating as he asked that, and the group looked at each other before the dwarf, obviously, took first word:

"Listen here pal! Moradin explained to me the situation: You've got a really, really wicked monster in your plane, and he's coming straight HERE, TODAY, to slaughter you lot. We are here to stop him, because the gods gave it a fifty-fifty chance if we banded together to fight him. While we do that, however, you have to stay in the goddamn central square, because if you try running, he'll slit your throat easily. Stay in the damn open and in the light, because he wants you alive. Or you'd already be dead, for Moradin"

Cromwell gulped drastically, as many others stared in surprise.

"I have to *ask* what are you? And you too?" as Cromwell said that, he pointed both to the dwarf and to the adult as tall as a child.

"Halfling here, born of Yondalla but believer of Olidammara!" the adult as tall as a child said with a wide grin, making a dagger spin into his right hand with ease, "We are a race of troublemakers and happy to go guys, quick feet and nimble fingers, but especially, beautiful to boot!" as he said that, the Dwarf laughed once more.

"Ah! I'm Torderk Ulfgard of Clan Rotnaghroz! If you want to know, it means *Stone crushers* from the dwarven tongue! I'm a dwarf furthermore, but that's obvious to everyone, right?" as he said that, the bearded guy looked for a moment around, and then sighed, seeing the shocked faces.

"Fine then: we are the proud builders of the mountain halls! Our steel is thick as a wall and cuts as a diamond's saber, our forges run every minute with hot, steaming, fluid metals and alloys. We are the dwarves! The ultimate badass destroyers of problems! Forged by the god Moradin himself; first comes the clan then comes the dwarf king, then the dwarf kind, and finally ourselves!" as he proudly beamed such selfless display of ideals, Cromwell sighed. He had no clue at all what they were talking about, but he just hoped they could help.

"So, you are here to protect me from a monster, right?" as he asked that, many nodded, except Jeanne and Cristopher, who had no clue about the whole deal.

"If I may…what monster is it?" Jeanne hesitantly asked, to which Zick turned to stare at the girl in shock.

"You…you don't know?" he hesitantly asked.

"Well, no. Should I have known?" she replied meekly, to which the man who had the book chained to his wrist muttered in a slow and baritone voice:

"You should have, child. We are up against the worst monster ever to be born, one who is both the inspiration of many and the doom of many more." As the pale man spoke, Torderk screamed in a really angry tone:

"That monster is over seven hundred years old, and there are tales spun deep in the dark tunnels of the mountain homes, speaking of his unfathomable evil acts. He has enslaved dragons, butchered countries and people alike, he is known to rival the GODS…except Moradin, because Moradin is awesome." As the dwarf said that, the pale man coughed, and got back his attention:

"As I was saying, the monster has a name well known to those of his plane: he is Artos Basileus Sfor, King of Necros, Destroyer of Good and Reaper of souls and, as of the latest announcements, bearer of the thunder and of the death wings…"

"He added something ELSE to his tricks! Oh Olidammara grant me nimble fingers, because I'm so stealing those *death wings*" Zick exclaimed, raising his eyes up to the ceiling.

"Anyway, he's a cunny beast in the form of a rotten corpse, wherever he goes, fear follows, as long as he is prepared, he is undefeatable by all except the gods themselves, and the gods can't act unless he openly challenges them. A feat he is preparing for since decades, but which has yet to see it beginning, thankfully." As the man said that, Jeanne gulped heavily.

"And we must fight it?" as she asked that holding Pelor's symbol tightly with her right fist, she could feel the warmth of the amulet, but still a lingering fear was taking control of her insides."

"No, we must ambush him." Zick said, interrupting the Wizard.

"That's not honorable! We should challenge him to a duel fair and square." As Cristopher said that, the Kord barbarian roared raising his fists up in the sky.

"The force is strong in this one! I Lionroar of the Northern Mountains of Albion will challenge him too straight on."

"Then you'd better get to it, because it seems he's coming." The dwarf spoke gravely, standing up and taking off his helm just for a moment, to reveal the upper part of the head gravely injured by what looked like a wicked claw.

"I can sense him coming…we must hurry...he'll be here tomorrow at most."

"What! But, the army is…" Cromwell was shocked: the army was halfway between Rosais and Dartanes, because those had been the two possible arrival of the Tristain's fleet, and not having received word of their defeat it was impossible for them to have already been conquered.

"EMPEROR CROMWELL!" the secretary yelled entering the room once more, "we have received word from the blockade messengers: a dragon as big as a mountain has broken through!"

"So he comes. Let's get moving folks, we have a city to booby trap." As Devon muttered that, everyone turned to him for a moment.

"What? Name's Devon by the way. I speak only when I need to," having said that, he turned to leave, and, hopefully, to be followed.

***Louise's inside***

The Vortex was spinning wildly, spewing forward strange and abhorrent creatures, which Basileus and Sfor were battling with spells. The scenery was that of an overly charred battleground, because where Basileus preferred to summon monsters, and actually seemed to do just that to bolster their defenses; Sfor was going outright out with the most destructive spells she had even seen. Adding that that was her soul, it made her feel scared. The strange creatures held no form, at least, some of them, others looked greenish, wearing strange monk-like outfits, a name actually came into her brain, that of the Githzerai. Soon, however, it was substituted by another one, Aberration. Abominations were actually spewing forth, and as she stood there, not knowing what to do, Sfor swiftly flew near her, crackling in joy:

"They started acting the moment those objects resounded with your void! Your void isn't keeping them in check anymore, whatever you need to do, DO IT, because we're running low on spells!"

"SFOR JUST START USING THE SPELL-LIKE ABILITIES!" the rotting lich howled as clasping his hands together, a spear of lighting was thrown forward, striking a githzerai and moving then to the next target, leaving hollow chests where it went.

"I AIN'T SUMMONING NOTHING!" the skull replied bewildered, as a set of eight rays spew forward, grabbing the souls of the githzerai straight out of their bodies, now turned to dust corpses, and actually, devouring them.

"I … what should I do!" Louise screeched, as she held her wand, or what she had come to learn was her mental manifestation of her wand, tightly.

"GO GET YOUR VOID BY THE EAR AND BRING IT BACK HERE!" they both shouted at the same time, before something that looked like an Hybrid between a clam and a black hole moved forward, grunting something like "Cloyster!".

Louise turned around, searching for something that vaguely resembled the void she had been tasked to search for, but nothing seemed to her familiar, except nothingness, that was, at least, until she heard something sobbing in a corner.

"DISINTEGRATION!" she could still hear behind her, cast by Sfor.

"I CALL MY SCOURGE! I CALL MY SWORD! THUS SAYS YOUR LORD!" Basileus had resorted to fighting fire with fire, as from another portal demonic beings spewed forward, clashing hardly against what was turning more and more like a battlefield.

Louise ignored them, concentrating on the sobbing, which seemed to grow stronger by the second, as she moved towards the corners of her soul, to finally find a figure sitting down, holding its own legs as a sort of defense, while being in a fetal position.

She moved closer to the figure, which seemed like that of a young girl.

"Ehm…are you the Void?" Louise asked, carefully holding her wand at the ready.

"Divided. Fragmented. Unconscious." The figure wept.

"Well, listen, I'd like it if you'd get back to holding at bay the portal, because…"

"FOR THE LOVE OF NECROS; BLADE OF UTTER DARKNESS!" as Basileus yelled that, he launched himself forward, slashing and destroying upon every hit the creatures born of the worst nightmares.

"Well, yes, that's going pretty badly over there." Louise muttered.

"Once united. Bring us back together." The figure kept on crying, "Killed us. Divided us. The Elf killed us, shattered us."

"The elf?" as Louise queried, she turned her head due to a sudden bright flash, just in time to see Sfor send two giant force hands to crush a couple of unfortunate fire elementals belonging to the enemy's side. At least, she hoped it was like that.

"HANDS ON!" the skull gleefully roared.

"You and your puns! TEMPEST OF NEEDLES!" Basileus cast again, as thousands upon thousands of needle hit forward, tearing small holes and causing severe bleeding in many of the assailants.

When Louise turned back, the figure was in front of her, causing her to shriek and try to jump backward, try, because she couldn't move her feet.

"The Elf, the Familiar. The killer of the master. The Gandalfr, the betrayer. Sasha." As she pronounced that word with hate, her empty eye sockets stared deeply, if so they could, into Louise's.

"Make me whole. Kill the others. Give me back my strength. I will stop them. But disobey…and suffer." With those words, the figure leapt past both Basileus and Sfor, who were strangely back to back, surrounded by a couple of strange amorphous ensemble of limbs and claws and teethes.

"I wanted to eat and to devour." Basileus muttered.

"I wanted to tear and to rend." As Sfor added, strange looking sword appeared, like they had been made with teethes of fierce animals.

"RENDING SWORDS" they both cast, as the swords began swirling around, every wound made causing enormous amounts of blood to gush forward, dark blue blood.

The *Void* creature moved to swirl once more around the vortex, stabilizing it, and Louise felt a sense of relief as both the undead began *cleaning* up her soul.

"I must say, it was a nice exercise." Basileus noted.

"NEVER AGAIN." Sfor screeched.

"I second that motion." The lich immediately replied.

"I third it too." Louise muttered, as moving back to them, she suddenly felt so tired.

"You'd better sleep girl, we just fought a hellish battle in your soul: it's going to take a while to heal." Basileus whispered to her, hand-waving her to sleep, but somewhere, her mind knew she'd have the strength to resist the spell, she'd have the ability to do so, but she let the spell affect her never the less: she was too tired to do anything more, and she certainly would have enjoyed a good sleep.

***Westwood village***

Louise had fainted, and, after ruling it out as stress, Arty had offered as an apology a dinner for everyone in the village. He had done so after knowing that in truth the village was more of an orphanage for children who had their parents taken because of the war, and after hearing that sad tale, he simply couldn't let them go and not have dinner at his mansion. The bright white door had made many children go in an *Aw* like phase, before rushing in in neatly lines, as the ghostly butlers had been tasked with giving each children a basket, and go search for chocolate eggs to eat after dinner. The eggs being in the mansion's garden, and being carefully watched by the garden's inhabitants, namely the moving Hedges, Tiffania had the time to escort both Mathilda and Arty to the Wizard's bedroom, where he deposited the sound asleep Louise.

"Here we go." Arty whispered as he tucked the bed sheets for the pink-haired girl in a sort of paternal display of love. Then he turned with a broad smile to Mathilda and Tiffania, and escorted them back towards the dining room, which had the number of tables and chairs doubled, just to make sure there was enough space for all the children. There was enough space, and even enough food, albeit for once the supplies were risking of going under the half full mark. The *head butler* which differentiated from the other butlers for having a sort of red aura on top of his golden hue, held a sort of flag, signaling the levels of the supplies, and the children, taking it as a game, ate until their stomachs ached, and they could fit no more of the delicious delicacies.

Only Tiffania seemed to control herself among the children, but even then, she was just mortal, and like everyone else, soon fell into a nearly comatose sleep of self-satisfaction. Mathilda was, instead, a more controlled eater, being a thief helped too, considering the self-control needed to simply not steal everything that shined, so she was just mildly induced to sleep, and not completely.

"Arty…you're a great host, you know?" she muttered, slightly red from the wine, the only adult there together with the King and thus the only two the butlers had brought wine instead of juices.

"Thank you for the compliment." Arty replied with a smile, he didn't seem fazed at all by the amount of food eaten, and it was more like the butlers had carefully avoided serving him more than needed, but at the same time, never leaving his plate empty until the end.

"Now however, what is your plan going to be? They won't so easily accept her, you know…" Mathilda whispered, staring at the young girl who was peacefully sleeping on the chair.

"Why wouldn't they?" Arty asked back, with a small grin.

"Well, for once, there is no-one who can testify it, apart from me, and I was stripped of my nobility." As Mathilda said that, Arty grinned wider.

"Taken care of: one queen in Gallia earns her place to me, her daughter earns a mother to me, the Tristain's queen will follow for my alliance and Germania…well: I can always make them understand." As he said that, staring straight in front of him, he stood up, having seen a glint of something moving along the hallway.

"Wait here, whatever happens." As Arty whispered that, he moved quickly a butler handing over to him his staff.

Staff in hand he exited the door of the dining room, Mathilda surprised, but staying put, at least, for five seconds, before standing up, and being literally brought back down by the horde of servants.

Arty on the other hand moved fast, he heard no footsteps, but needed not to, he knew where to go and find his unexpected guest: the library.

It was a blonde woman, with a pigtail braided in such a way that it descended straight till the middle of her height. She turned, showing blue eyes, and a warm smile. Dressed in what looked like white fur, the perfect example of purity, if it weren't for the fact that, holding in her arms, was the dirt and covered with grime book of the crack jokes, and her smile, which was something wicked and utterly impossible.

"This is cruel, even for you, laughing thief." Arty replied, angrily, his staff flickering to light, as the wood carved itself back into itself, to reveal underneath a black and polished staff, with skulls weeping tears of blood on the carpet.

"Don't be so pouty, Arty. I'm just taking it back. Sun guy didn't tell me he wanted it to torture you…maybe I should steal the memory of knowing this book too." She added, her grin distorting even more.

"Why the form then?" he replied with anger, as a spell charged itself and flickered slightly into the Wizard's free hand.

"Why, why indeed, I love to add oil to the fire." Olidammara replied with a laugh, before disappearing, just in the nick of time to avoid a double conjoined ray spell, which sent, with a loud explosion, the side of the mansions' wall into dust, grinding its way till it hit the boundaries of the mansion, leaving only a trail of destruction on its path.

As the Wizard howled his anger, Mathilda saw, her eyes bulging out of her orbits, an actual display of the man's power, and couldn't help it, but think why he simply went with sleep spells.

The butlers kept nudging her back, but she had soon realized that they simply weren't strong or material, she had to believe they were able to touch her for them to actually work on her; otherwise she could pass through them with ease.

Then, as she stood still in shock, Arty turned his gaze back towards the door, his eyes for a brief moment showing a sentiment that wasn't meant to be there, nor on his face. Mathilda slowly moved closer, and then, in silence, hugged him.

"Hush…what are you saddened for?" she whispered to the man whose eyes were beginning to water.

"Everyone…has something they regret having done…she is one of my regrets." He whispered back.

"Can I hear about her?" Mathilda asked.

"Sure…"

***Louise's dream-Artos' Story***

Louise stared for the first time in a while at the strange dream. It had been a while actually since the last time she had dreamed of Artos, actually. She looked at him moving a hand and a Drow exploding into bits, without fear or anger, hate or show of emotion, a rotting corpse moving silently, with an objective. The staff the drow held was black, with skulls carved onto it, it began weeping tears of blood, the moment the Lich touched it.

"Staff of the Necromancer, out of the nine staves, you are the wicked, the unwanted, the hated; come with me, and let us rule." The lich whispered, as the staff slowly assumed a wooden aspect, like a normal staff, like…

"The staff you are always holding." Louise whispered.

"WE MARCH!" the lich roared, waving a hand into the air, and suddenly, the corpses of the drows in the room began trembling. They jerked up with uncontrolled movements, standing back up even though many had burned parts cut off, or would have clearly been dead by the bleeding. Louise knew she had assisted to the revival of corpses as undead, she even knew those were Zombies, but what she didn't know was that they weren't the normal zombies. They stood in line, as the staff slowly hummed a note that only the undead could hear; a note that made the lich's control over them easier, and thus made them easier to control, and, by direct consequence, stronger.

Artos, or maybe Basileus, moved forward, and the corpses followed. Louise followed in silence, not understanding why he was doing that. Until the scene unfocused, to regain control of him in a grassy field, a white walled city in front of him; the same city he had come from, years before.

"She's probably married by now. The poison worked once more." A man that Louise recognized as Gustaf, the kid under Arty's protection, whispered to the lich's ear, with a gleeful grin.

"On a day of holy meaning," The Lich whispered, staring at the city in front of him, the undead beginning to move. "On a day where light shines brightly upon the rooftops," The Wizard went on. "On a day like this, when the people are enjoying a feast; on a day like this I lost it all. Today, we MARCH." And as his hand raised up in the sky, his staff wept tears of blood once more, and from each of the droplets, a skeleton was formed, and soon, the skeletons outran the zombies into the unaware city.

"Gustaf, prepare the mercenaries." Arty muttered, to which the man bowed, before standing back up to speak:

"All hail the new king of Terenestia." The man hadn't turned around, that Basileus lifted a hand, stopping him.

"No. This city will be soon black and charred as my hometown once was…this, I will call Necros, *dead*, Artos Basileus Sfor, King of Necros. Sounds fitting." The lich chuckled, and, as the man bowed once more, he left hurriedly, teleporting somewhere.

"We are the spear head. Let us do the dirty job." Basileus muttered, moving forward, a step at a time, as the grass around him turned grey and dull, rotting into wasteland.

"Arty…what poison?" Louise asked, following, "Whom did you poison? The men the princess, Elizabeth, had to marry? You kept her virtue pure all this years?" she asked once more, blushing at the thought.

"But you're now an undead…how is that even going to work?" She reddened furiously at those words, why was her mind that dirty, now?

As the gates of the city grew neared, Louise stared at the skeleton's claws tearing apart the few unsuspecting guardsmen first, and then making their way through the city's streets, filled with people.

The zombies, arriving together with the lich, blocked the exit, biting and lashing at anyone who tried to run for the only entrance, and exit, of the walled city.

"Only one gate can be an advantage or a disadvantage…it depends." Basileus whispered, as he tapped gently with his staff onto the grounds, and suddenly, the corpses of the dead guardsmen came back to life, in armor and with their weapon held tightly in their dead hands.

"Forward my soldiers, forward. To the church of Pelor. A marriage awaits being interrupted" As he muttered that with hate, he moved together with them, giggling every now and then as he whispered dark thoughts of what he'd do once he'd destroy the orphanage, or after burning down a couple of houses, he came to a halt, and Louise with him. Louise had been green since halfway through, and was now metaphorically puking everything her stomach had on the ground. The undead made no distinctions: they killed all, men, women, children, innocents and culprits, without disregards. She was starting to think that no; Artos wasn't going to interrupt the marriage for love.

"Who are you, vile…" a paladin had begun ranting, but was soon brought to silence, when an arrow stuck straight through his neck, sending him to a merciless death.

"The Black claw is at your service. As per contract, we will assassinate all faithful resistance from here till the church's boundaries." A single black clad in leather man approached, before disappearing in a back alley. The lich shrugged, moving forward once more, his steps taking him closer and closer to the church of Pelor, the Cathedral of light, placed atop of a hill, right next to the more inner walls to protect the lord's castle itself. The few groups of resistance scattered or were destroyed by his presence, and by strange dark rays that him as a lich, produced from the tip of his fingers, weakening or outright killing the poor folks.

The more he killed, the more he raised, and by the time he actually reached the cathedrals borders, many more had already joined his side.

Straight in front of the cathedral, stood a bronze clad man, in the groom's typical armor, which was worn when a marriage was between a member of the military, with tanned skin and an angry stare, his claymore that he was wielding with both hands, made him menacing, but, compared to Basileus, also pathetical.

"Wait. If he's there. Who did you poison?" Louise asked once more.

"So it was you!" the king yelled, "You poisoned all my brides! The people thought it was I! They hated me for it, and many revolted outright!"

"Necessary to ensure minimum resistance today. Your army of spitting camels elsewhere was needed." The lich replied, coldly.

"You don't refute the charges?" the king asked surprised.

"Why would I? You're going to die and that's final. Care telling me where the bride is?" Basileus muttered, once more.

"The bride is safe in the castle! You will not have her, vile and foul creature! You think your puny undead will survive the might of the gods!" as the man yelled that, the cathedral's doorsteps were suddenly swarmed by clerics, who took their positions and begun chanting.

"Got you all where I wanted." The lich smugly replied, as he raised his right hand, and then, crashed it down. Suddenly, the chants of the priest went interrupted, as the cathedral itself bend forward, crashing down on them all, behind it, stood roaring up the same elemental seen in Tarbes, not that Louise knew, but she just felt it was the same.

"Reduce to paste the survivors, Golgoth," as Basileus whispered that, the Elemental of Earth took to his duty, his rock fists smashing down with fury against the few clerics who had tried to stand up, and, without the cathedrals' holy support, the swarming horde of undead took care of the survivors with ease.

"This is what you get for being a Bedouin king of the West, and hating magic." The Lich muttered.

"A couple of wizards would have taken me far more planning than this." He added, even annoyed, as he made his way to the castle gates.

"No anti magic field? Really?" he was kind of shocked, as Disintegration swiftly opened a cube hole for him and a few of his undead to move through. A couple of guards ran forward, mounting horses and with lances ready to impale him. He didn't budge. The next moment, as the lances passed straight through him, both the cavalrymen were dismounted, as they didn't let go of their weapons.

"This is it? Really?" the Lich seemed utterly shocked. "Who trained you? Idiots!" as he flung them to the side, removing the two lances like they were nothing more than a temporary speck of dust in the eye, the lich moved forward. Louise simply stared, now she understood even more why she had to be afraid.

Really afraid.

The inner castle's guard began running, begging for their lives, and being turned to dust, or enslaved to his will in death, as long as they stood on his intended path. The library.

In the library, Louise stared at the blonde haired woman, who had a pigtail braided in such a way that it reached on her back till half her size, the woman, turning around with a surprised face, was holding tightly a book covered in dirt and grime and even blood.

"When I ran here, a zombie ate my old lady in waiting, but he didn't touch me. This is her blood, you know." She whispered, pointing at some blood stains on the cover.

"I brought it with me even at the marriage. I felt I needed to have some fun, you know, my sisters dead, my future husband the probable culprit, my father dead too…what was I supposed to do? In the end I had to marry him and I knew you would be angry." She added, as Basileus silently stared.

"I always regretted what happened that day, I really did, I thought I could save you both, really, but father caught me while I was carrying your woman outside, and I had to think quickly. Really, it was a mistake." Louise felt it, and so did Basileus: a lie.

"I really didn't want to, but I was forced to: her or you, and so…I saved you…hoping I could then mend the hole in your heart later."

"She was not my woman." Basileus replied, making a step forward, and earning himself a shocked look from the Queen.

"She was my sister." He replied, "And your half-sister." With those words, he stopped straight in front of the Queen who, albeit seeing a rotting corpse, was more shocked by its words than anything else, and stared at him, mouth open, wanting to speak but not knowing what to say.

"Let me spin you a tale of a prophecy foretold, to a king who asked if he could have a lover: If a lover will be taken, by the king of the white walled city, twins will be born, and one will be an instrument of destruction and utter evil, while the other will be of creation and light. Now tell me, which of the two am I?" as Basileus said that, Elizabeth's eyes bulged, as the rotten hands got to her neck.

"To ensure the prophecy never completed the king bought a band of mercenary to raid the peaceful village in which his mistress, an elf, lived. Plunder it and then kill or enslave everyone, but the kids had to die. That band of mercenary was a band of Bedouin, which later fought against others for the throne of the Desert of the West. Fun isn't it? You know what's funnier? A half-elf is born from an elven mother after two years of pregnancy. We were younger than the king thought, and so instead of killing us with care, my sister got kidnapped, while I got an axe in the back. I still have the scar, even in this corpse's form." Basileus' face moved closer to Elizabeth's who was in the process of having a mental breakdown.

"Then, lo and behold, I got taken in after stealing at the market, BASILEUS: THAT BELONGS TO THE KING!" as he yelled that, he threw the woman on the floor, with a loud thud.

"Artos was the name my mother chose for me, it meant *Bread*, it was a simple name. All that I wanted was to live a simple life, and get it over it, but a god decided that no, I should have been part of a prophecy, a prophecy so wicked, I ended up near the place I despised the MOST." As slowly as he moved forward, the queen moved backwards, crawling as fast as she could.

"The head librarian doted on me, because I had a quick mind; obviously, being a half-elf, I got my fair share of retard, but I grew up, yes, I did. Then you came along, wanting to play. A plan began forming up." As he said that, he stopped moving.

"You didn't realize it yet, but you never were natural at magic, I was the one who made the books go mad with a prestidigitation spell, and then faulted on you and your apparent discovery of magic…that's why you studied as a wizard, even though a sorcerer's path would have been the most correct choice…but your father was an idiot, that much was certain." The Queen stopped, staring at him, tears running down her cheeks.

"When I took up the surname Sfor, I thought about letting it be, about leaving the king in peace, and maybe, maybe, letting go of my anger. He wasn't worth it; but then, on the day of my adoptive father's funeral, nobody showed up. The pudgy and cute princess of the time had learned to say a nice little poem, and even though the head librarian had served for over FIFTY years, no one came to his funeral. Everyone, even the damn cleric, was at the royal court, hearing the poem being repeated till nausea." A small flaming sphere appeared right next to Basileus, as his gaze set on the Queen.

"I buried him myself, and then went to work in silence. Nobody even asked where he was, or how he was, he stopped being seen, so I became the new head librarian…and nobody seemed to care as a man who worked for fifty years with dedication was forgotten." Artos made a step forward, as the flaming sphere went to the side, touching some books and setting them on fire.

"Then, finally, I left this rotten place among insults, and found another way. I was to become a great wizard, a great teacher, maybe even the guild master. Until THAT PIECE OF SHIT decided to take it all away once more, and to top it off, my long lost sister was taken away too because of that shit's daughter. So now, you see, I am not here to save you, girl…I'm here to have my revenge." And with those final words, as the library began burning down, the flaming sphere bouncing everywhere it could, Artos moved steadily close to the Queen, and, as the Queen whispered her final words that the lich didn't hear, too taken in his revenge, the neck snapped, and the circle, finally, closed.

Louise heard. She heard and stared in silence. Artos Basileus Sfor wasn't a good guy at all. He was evil, cunny, and had power. He was a Tyrant, a necromancer, and even worst, yet she fell on her knees crying, as she realized how cruel fate can sometime be. Even worst, not fate, but the gods.

***Back to the present***

"Then, I snapped the queen's neck out of anger. I still remember how she looked at me, looked at the monster I had become, and how she probably faulted herself for everything, how I faulted herself for everything…I'm a monster, Mathilda, no matter what I do, I will never redeem myself in a lifetime…that is my regret, my worst one, my horrible unfathomable one I will never clear myself of." As he finished whispering that, Mathilda of Saxe-Gotha stared in silence at the man, the King of Necros, who was a city filled with undead, she didn't know what to do, she knew he was no longer that man, clearly, still, the knowledge of how dark his past was would make it easier for her to confess having been a thief to Tiffania, heck, even if she had been a bloody mercenary she'd have had an easier time than him. Yet he had relied on her for the first time, he had told her everything, and now she had no doubt she had to keep the secret, she looked at the man with a silently warm smile, and then kissed him on the lips, leaving him to stare at her for a moment, perplexed.

"I did bad things too, maybe not as drastic as you, but it was in the past…you have certainly earned yourself a redemption…" she whispered, "no one should hold such a weight alone, Arty…I can shoulder some, if you want to cry on a shoulder again."

"Thank you…" Arty whispered back, hugging the woman tightly.

At that moment, Louise woke up in the bedroom. She stood up, in silence, and silently moved out of the room.

"Going somewhere?" a voice asked her bemusedly, and, turning around, she saw…the princess, or queen, Elizabeth, if not for the smile, that wrong and utterly asymmetrical smile.

_Olidammara._

"The Laughing thief…was the dream one of your tricks?" Louise muttered, anger showing off her magical aura, as her wand was swiftly by her side.

"Now, now, no need to be hasty. The dream was real and actual historical value. I just sent it your way without the other knowing. Those two in your head will soon come back and ask questions too, so, right now, how about some private time? You're going to have to choose, girl, sooner or later, between what you believe and what you are told…I can't wait to see what you're going to choose. It's going to be so much fun!"

"Why are you telling me this?" Louise muttered, angrily.

"Because when the time will come, I'm asking you to throw this at Sfor's feet, or well, whatever is his lower part." As she said that, she threw a strange looking bag, with a bright red string attached to it.

"Just pull the red string when the bag is under the skull, and the rest, will be magical to behold…*Wink wink*" and with that, and without further care, the God disappeared once more.

Louise grabbed the thing, which held on one side the image of a skull inside a red circle that had one diagonal line slashing it.

"Looks familiar," she mumbled, putting it into one of her *Practical Pockets* a sort of Heward handy backpack version, but as a pocket, she had no qualms accepting free stuff, and she did need to clear her head some more.

As she slowly descended the staircase, back into the main floor, she saw a hole torn apart into a set of rooms, much to the dismay of the sharks, as the hole had broken their pool and sent them dead for lack of water.

The sight she saw on the other side, however, made her stare in stiffened shock and surprise.

Arty was in a deadlock with Mathilda. A deadlock made of languid and passionate kisses the likes of which her brain couldn't actually proceed to register, nor did have any wish to understand, and, as such, she slowly retreated back towards the dining room, where the butlers, as if on cue, had already prepared her share of the food.

As she took a bite, the head butler waved his flag happily, they had touched the half-full/half-empty state of the supplies, and that, was a miracle by itself.

**Author's notes:**

**Let the story go on, as the characters move upon the chessboard designed by a wicked dungeon master of doom *trademark*, evolution is coming, as some may say, wherever it is of character or not, that I do not know. **

**Obviously Arty did not give the full *I'm a lich* version to Mathilda, he's not (yet) that stupid. That said, who realized that I'm using some things from Disney songs to write some of the incantations? (The Plagues from the prince of Egypt, and *in the dark of the night* of Anastasia) **

**I swear I'll eventually get to the meeting with an elf, albeit that will be on a completely unrelated way from canon, because, as I said before (Did I actually write it?) I intend to move a bit out of canon soon enough.**

**Blinded: Thanks! And well, hopelessly dead not so much, between a hammer and an anvil? Yes. Between death and imprisonment for life? Yes. You've got to love emotional gods like the greeks/latin/d&d pantheon ones!**

**Anonymous: Thanks! If I may ask, what is the *other* crossover you value as the best? (might have already read it, or might not, curious)**

**Anyway, reviews are, as always, welcomed.**


	12. Chapter 12: Subjugations and Revelations

Chapter Twelve

When the morning sun rose into Westwood, the village was silent and empty. Everyone was obviously sleeping in comfortable small bunk beds, inside of Arty's mansion.

Everyone, except three people, one who was punching the air with anger, her pink-hair flowing in the wind, while the other two were exchanging embarrassed glances, as the memory of what they had done last night came back to them.

"Well. It's time to go." Arty said, straightening up, "The door will close in another day, and if anyone is still inside by then, they will be simply pushed out before it closes."

"When should we reach the capital?" Mathilda asked back.

"I'll come for you. Don't worry about that," As he said that with a smile, which made Mathilda blush deeply.

Louise growled slightly under her breath, before snapping:

"Let's move it, you can go in heat afterwards for what I care." Muttering that, she grabbed the hand of the wizard and pulled him away from Mathilda, who simply giggled and waved goodbye.

"Mount" Arty whispered, and a horse made of force, spectral and a bit scary, appeared in front of them.

"No dragon this time?" Louise muttered as she mounted the horse first, soon followed by Arty, who grabbed the reins.

"No." he whispered back, before sending the horse on a gallop towards Londinium.

"So, what's your plan?" Louise asked, staring at the road in front of her.

"Going straight inside and announcing they are in the wrong." Arty replied nodding strongly.

Louise would have hit with her head the horse's mane but refrained from doing so, and muttered:

"I'm pretty sure they'd shoot first and ask questions later…something else?"

"We make the horse disappear around the corner, and enter the city by foot, feigning to be refugee's from the war; then, we look for Cromwell, and, once we have found him, we teleport back to the flagship, from there on it's easy."

"Yeah, convincing the other countries that a young naïf girl is a long lost and forgotten royalty member is really going to be a cakewalk," Louise sarcastically muttered.

_Well…yes._

…_I'm angry at you._

_Why? What did I do?_

_You snapped someone's neck._

…_who told you?_

_Someone. How could you?_

_How could I *not*? Revenge is revenge._

_She was no more a culprit than the gods._

_That's why they're next, girl. _

_Wait…_

As the sudden realization dawned on her, she finally understood; it had been so obvious that, his powers so great, he'd take on the next of his enemies.

_You…you actually weren't exaggerating it, but you weren't even joking. You rival the gods. You want to fight them, and kill them._

_Well, you realized that ONLY now!_

_S: I told you her stupidity was worth first prize._

_B: I repeat that an orc who voluntarily blinds himself earns it better._

_L: YOU'RE GOING TO GET KILLED!_

_S: I'm already dead!_

_B: HEY! I wanted to say that._

_L: I'm not going to let you do that. That's why you wanted me to warn you about the portal?_

_S: It's part of the plan._

_B: Wonderful designed plan. Obviously, someone had to chit chat on it._

_S: Damn it huh?_

_L: I'm not going to do your work! Do your worst but I will not let Arty die because of your resentments!_

_S: She's missing the point._

_B: Entirely missed the point: Girl, Arty is us. We are him. He wants this as much as us._

_L: you're lying!_

_S&B: THEN ASK HIM._

_L: I will, as soon as I have some time._

Louise realized that Arty had been speaking to her for a while, and, as he ended the sentence:  
"…that's why they should be convinced." She simply muttered a yes.

The rest of the voyage went by in silence, only interrupted by the noise of the horse's hooves or by Louise's growling.

When they reached the city's gates, a couple of guards stood overseeing the obvious inflow of refugee from the countryside, tales of a dragon roaring through had generally made even the most headstrong farmer to move out and reach for the city. They had dropped the horse and taken on an illusion of being ragged elderly men, who both stumbled forward at a slow pace, using a stick to help them move.

At the gates stood guard, among the town watch, a well armored boy of fifteen, in full armor, while next to him a young girl of thirteen stayed near, with red flaming hair and green eyes, being called by some *St. Jeanne* and by others Cleanser of undead. Behind them, a big burly barbarian stood laughing out hard at a crack joke he had made, and to which nobody have been laughing.

Louise took in their appearances, but more than that, she took in the symbols of the gods carved onto their shields, or armor, or amulets they were wearing.

Those were symbols of good; certainly Arty's hate was against the evil gods, not the good ones…she no longer had such infantile hopes however, so she walked next to Arty, who didn't seem to bother with them much. He did however stay in the middle between them and her.

"So many poor people escaping the monster's minions…may Heironeus bring him to me, so that I may fight him." The paladin muttered, staring at the massive income of desperate, hungry, or poor people barging in. He had been detecting some evil in the crowd, but it was a minimum amount, and not everyone could have been expected to carry on a respectful life. Still, no sign of evil monsters in front of him, and certainly the crowd didn't seem to be running. He spotted an elderly couple making their ways with sticks and being more carried by those nearby than by walking themselves, and felt a sense of pity. If he ever saw them during the rounds in the city, he'd make sure to give them something warm to eat.

Jeanne stared in silence, hoping that, whoever the evil monster was, it wouldn't attack in the middle of the crowd, forcing them to control their fire. Cromwell was in the central square of Londinium, sitting on a chair, and being guarded by any guard they could muster to find.

It had seemed embarrassing, but it was the only way to actually make sure the Emperor would be protected from underhanded ways. This did make him clear for a distance hit and run, and, for that reason, a set of wooden walls had been placed in three out of four sides, and a wooden panel had been used as a roof, thus, even if, by some strange gist of fate, the monster did manage to take the place of the emperor, a fifth hidden wall would sprout open, entrapping him into a set of glyphs that would, theoretically, block any type of magic.

The plan had been meticulously prepared for the sole reason that there wouldn't be a second chance. Either they managed, and thus saved the day, or they didn't, and then they would all die horrible deaths, if the tales that Torderk had spun about the monster's strength were anything real, though he had been a bit tipsy, with the fifth jug of ale in his body, and the tales seemed to be really old coming from his long dead clansmen.

So, as the people of the light side prepared nervously, the two old men reached a back alley, and disappeared into the darkness.

Artos moved swiftly, signaling to Louise to wait in the alley, which gave on the square where guards had been placed, they were circling repeatedly a strange wooden construction, and, as Louise waited shrouded in an invisibility spell, the Wizard…walked forward.

Louise would have face-palmed, hadn't she been busy catching her breath.

"Is Cromwell here?" the man clad in white shining armor queried, moving forward, his face so distended and his smile so warm, that many of the guards actually nodded, pointing at the construction.

"Thank you all!" as Arty said that, he side stepped to the side, avoiding a crossbow bolt. A frustrated Halfling that had hidden in the shadows muttered a curse of some sort, before recharging.

"No, no. This won't do." He chuckled, as he jumped backward, to avoid the blast of a Melph's acid arrow, cast by the pale Wizard who jumped out from behind the wooden construction.

"Such horrible hosts, you all are." Arty continued, as his body blurred nearly out of sight, the Blur spell used to avoid too many far-away risks.

"SOUND THE HORN!" yelled a gruff voice, as a steel clad dwarf charged forward, howling dwarven curses.

"Now then, please, be prepared." As Arty whispered that, a snap of the fingers later, a greasy substance appeared on the square's floor, sending the unable to stop dwarf to slip and fall on the ground, and continue to roll forward. Normally, a dwarf wouldn't have slipped on such a thing, but that Grease was simply too strong to refuse.

"Dwarf in the hole!" a voice screamed, as the halfling moved forward, daggers in hand, seeing how his bolts wouldn't hit the wizard anyway.

The guards finally took in the stranger's presence, even if majestic, he was an enemy, and as they tried to charge him, an explosion caught them off guard, sending many charred bodies on the floor, as a pink-haired girl bellowed her anger to the sky, dashing out of an alley with uncanny speed.

_He's not fighting alone. Not again._

_S: Appreciating the effort, but…_

_B: Oh, let her do it._

_S: Fine._

Louise placed herself to the back of Arty, as she faced the steel clad dwarf and the halfling, the Wizard locked onto the other one, and the guards, and Cromwell, who looked scared out from his improvised wooden housing.

"I have heard tales…" the wizard began, but didn't get to finish, as a volley of Magic Missiles darted forward, but, while the first barrage was dispelled, the second pierced through, tearing up holes on the body of the man, who fell on his knees, coughing blood, the next instant, Arty was already nearby, Derflinger in hand, the sword aflame as it was swung down for the killing blow.

It encountered resistance, however, as an axe parried the blow, sending the wizard to actually recoil back for a moment.

"So, you the monster? You look like a man." Lionroar muttered, helping his friend back up.

"Appearance may trick." Arty replied with a grin, as behind him, Louise had actually stopped Torderk on his tracks with a flame wall.

"FLAME SNAKE!" as Louise finished chanting her spell, a snake made of flames sprouted forward from the tip of her wand, throwing itself at her enemies.

"The sides!" Arty managed to yell, before having to use both his hands to block the hit from the barbarian.

"I see you through your blurring, MONSTER!" the barbarian grinned, as his axe flickered for a moment.

"Partner! Behind you!"

"Solar Ray!" the female voice of Jeanne erupted into the square, as a ray of light and fire sprout forward, missing just so slightly the Wizard, but tearing a hole into his white mantle.

"For HEIRONEUS!" the paladin yelled, as he charged straight through the flame wall, just in time for Louise to jump back, like she had been expecting that, and sending the paladin to fall down, to avoid trampling the halfling, who had been sneaking next to the pink-haired girl for a while.

"How did she…" the halfling muttered, but somewhere, in Louise's head, two undead were sending out orders.

_S: Sidestep to the right!_

_B: Jump back!_

_S: Two steps left._

_B: DUCK!_

As Louise lowered her head, the paladin's sword missed her, but did manage to graze her hair's tips.

_S: Tell him to kill them! TELL HIM TO KILL THEM!_

"Give up! You are surrounded!" as the paladin yelled that, archers sprouted from the roofs of the square, bows and muskets ready.

"You know, you're right." Arty replied, nodding. To which, everyone stopped for a moment.

"What?" the halfling queried, "He's gone…"

"If only because you lot are clearly in the wrong here, worst Tyrants ever." He added.

"We serve the people and the good!" the paladin screeched back.

"Cromwell is a tyrant who brought up a revolution. We are actually capturing him for trial, and have a legitimate heir for the throne of Albion." Arty replied with a grin.

"What? No. The people suffered under the king's rule and…"

"Really? Why, what proof do you have of that?"

"Proof? People starved!" the paladin angrily retorted.

"Last I checked, they're starving even now." The wizard was actually enjoying this.

"Because we are at war!"

"And why are we at war? It's because someone removed the king when he didn't have the power to do so: I removed a king and placed back a rightful heir, Gallia didn't revolt, and no war came out of it. You are doing it wrong, because you are evil." As he said that, like on cue, Louise dashed forward, wand in hand, and a small sphere threw forward, aiming straight at the pale man behind the barbarian, who went to cover the man, just in time for the fireball to ignite, leaving a thick cloud of dust in the surrounding area.

"Where is he!" Jeanne yelled as she moved forward, just in time to see a sword pierce her straight through the chest.

"Don't worry, not lethal…yet." Arty whispered in her ear, leaving her on the floor heavily bleeding, as Cromwell, who had tried to escape, was quickly brought on his knees by a sharp kick on the back of the head, coming straight from Louise.

"Jeanne!" Cristopher yelled, as the dust settled, the paladin had a choice: move and help his friends, all of them heavily injured, or charge at the wizard, who was in the meantime running towards the pink-haired girl and Cromwell. He didn't take much time to decide: he laid his hands upon the mortally wounded Jeanne to stabilize her, and then proceeded to the others.

Unknown to him, he had made the right choice, because, after all, there was still a perfectly fit for warfare dwarf, who, ignoring the flame wall jumped straight through while howling:

"Revenge for those you killed!"

Arty raised Derflinger just in time, but was actually pushed backwards, Louise raised her wand, but a smaller axe flew straight against her, slicing till the bone in her right arm, and stopping there, sending the young girl on a scream of pain.

As Arty fell down, his eyes flashed in anger, as the dwarf, that was about to let his axe fall down, stopped dead on his track.

Literally: he stopped and fell to the side, pale as a dead body can be, like frozen in time, except well, in death, as a set of force swords had sliced straight through his body in unspeakable manners, and were, even then, tearing his body to pieces, like the armor didn't even exist.

"Louise!" Arty yelled, running towards the girl and ignoring the force swords who, free to choose their targets, started moving towards the archer's on the roofs, while the pink-haired girl was in the meantime trying her best to dodge Cromwell's attempt of dealing the final blow himself with a small dagger. The Archers on the wall decided that that was the best shot they could attempt at the running wizard, and did so, the hail of arrows, strangely, hit its mark, riddling with piercing arrows Arty, but then they began screaming, as the swords impaled many of them on the first hit, tearing through their armors and bows alike with unprecedented ferocity.

"YOU…" the Emperor of Albion didn't finish, because the next moment, the dagger turned to a fiery molten chunk of iron, that melted onto his right hand, with excruciating pain, and as the Wizard threw a fist straight in the stomach of the man, he grabbed Louise by the waist and teleported away, with both of them.

Jeanne looked scared at the place where the wizard had been but a moment before, in his eyes was a cold and dark fury, like an enormous black pit, and she couldn't help but shiver. Praying for comfort to her god, as tears ran down her cheeks staring at the destruction around her. She slowly got back to her feet, helped by halfling man.

"Was he right?" Zick asked, worriedly.

"I don't know…I just don't know." Jeanne whispered back.

***Henrietta's side***

A light drizzle was slowly falling down, as some clouds had actually managed to place themselves higher than the Albion and Tristain's fleets. Henrietta stared to her side, looking at Louise who had her right arm bandaged and healed by the water mages. She was a bit pale, for the blood loss, but hadn't fainted and hadn't screamed even once as the water mages had healed her, as painful as it would have been, and had instead insisted on watching the scene unfold in front of her eyes. Arty had grabbed Cromwell by the neck, and had disappeared with him somewhere, telling them to simply get in position, and wait.

Their fleet was thus about to engage with the enemy's, just a couple of minutes more, and the cannons would be at fire range. She stared from the upper deck in front of her; taking the sight of the two fleet unfolding and readying their cannons. At that moment, however, something appeared with a deafening noise, slashing through each and every of the Albion's ships masts, and tearing apart their sails. Straight at the center of the air, floating surrounded by an enormous round sphere of fire, that seemed to protect him, stood the King of Necros, and he was…angry.

He was too far to be seen, but his anger, his anger was touchable, it was understandable, it was felt on the skin and the hairs on the back of the necks raised in fear and anticipation, as the man raised a hand, tearing open the clouds and revealing a bright light.

"WATCH AND DESPAIR!" he roared to the sun, like it could answer him.

"WATCH AND FACE THE TRUTH!" as he screamed once more, the fire sphere dispersed, and Cromwell was floating, held in a force hand, that was holding him tightly.

"The emperor is now my prisoner." The voice no longer screamed, yet it was strong enough to be heard by everyone in the disarrayed fleets.

"He has killed the rightful rulers of Albion, rulers placed upon their positions by the will of the Founder himself, and as such I King Artos Basileus Sfor, ruler of Necros, Founder's chosen, I have come to restore order and peace with the rightful heir! He allied himself with false and wicked deities! Born of ignorance and stupidity! As the Founder's chosen, I WILL NOT let such heresy keep going on its course!" finishing his talk, he pointed his right hand straight in the sky.

"BOW AND PRAY FOR YOUR REDEMPTION and I will forgive you!" and as he said that, his white mantle swirling in the sky, his golden crown shining brightly, the Albion's soldiers bowed, their hearts praying devotedly towards the founder, what fools had they been to go against the one true god?

As the hymns raised themselves towards the sky, someone else wasn't, at all, happy, and moving an open palmed hand straight in front of his figure, he sent a holy circle of fire and divine energy downwards, against Cromwell and Artos, and as the searing circle fell, Louise stared, open mouthed, at the flesh being burnt, at the sickening screams of Cromwell, and at the gleeful cackle and laughter coming from inside her head.

_B: One more pebble is placed._

_S: Let's make it count double, for the second is there too._

_B: Let's make it triple, for the good old times._

Arty didn't reappear, at all, and slowly, the burnt carcass of Cromwell turned into dust, and flew away, the force hand slowly dispersing afterwards.

_L: Where is Arty?_

_S: Dead._

_L: What! But you…_

_B: He and us are not the same, girl. _

_S: Precisely. Now it's just you and us, isn't it going to be funny? Huh? _

_L: I can't…I can't…_

As tears fell downwards from her eyes, Louise fell on her knees, not knowing what to do.

_S: CARPE DIEM! Grab the moment. Conjure a minor illusion, and give it Arty's voice._

_B: Something like: This is the proof of the founder's strength!_

_S: Do that and the gods will be routed! _

_B: Do that and you'll have your revenge!_

Louise stared in front of her, she still couldn't process the death of the wizard, of her friend, and probably, it was all just a trick from the two, but she had to make a choice. She whispered quietly the words, and as a figure, not as strong looking as before, but still clearly resembling Arty reappeared in the center of the battlefield, she let the second spell free, and as Ghost sound assumed the tone of voice of Wizard, it spoke once more:

"This is the proof of the founder's strength. Let the wicked be purged, and the holy be cleansed!" at that point, the Albion fleet simply screamed for the miracle and surrendered in its entirety.

Somebody, atop his golden throne, bit his hand hard, really, really, hard, and as droplets of blood fell down, forming strange winged creatures, which rose already clad in armor and swords, it muttered:

"Solars: bring a message to the Concordant Killers, the balance has been tipped towards evil, and must now move towards good."

It didn't bother the god that he had brought forth the unbalance in the first place, after all, it was the mortal's fault for opposing his plan, and blaming *Heresy* on the cults of the good gods.

It did however make him angry: he had lost a bet with the fellow gods. Now they'd have to use the strong manners to get into that plane.

***Necros***

"Isn't that…" Sinfer Von Tereskian, Baron of Blood and also known as the Red baron, was actually dripping sweat. Even though as a vampire he couldn't for the love of himself show weakness, he had no choice, because straight in front of him stood, if a bit charred, but otherwise pretty much alive, the ruler of Necros. Sure, the ruler was in his usual fake attire of goodness, and was breathing hard, maybe from some sort of pain, but the ruler was the ruler, and he had to obey him, that, and the fact that apart from this looking like some sort of test, he'd probably die a thousand time before all the contingency on his master actually went off. He was sure of that, this wasn't a fake, or a doppelganger, or an idiotic changeling. It was the ruler of Necros, in his good old days, and to testify that, the death knight leader of the platoons had been called back on his nightmare-ish steed.

When he had been found, crashed down straight next to Pelor's ex-church, many had thought it had been a nice try of a Solar to infiltrate the city, and that said solar had thus gotten hit, first hand, with all the glyphs and contingencies that made Necros not just any city, but The City of undeads.

The first zombies had stopped, staring at the body, then a necromancer had come and had outright fainted, finally one of his vampire spawn had been courageous enough to hold the ruler's body and bring him down in the deeper levels, where he was now resting, asleep.

"Yes, it's him." The voice hollowed out in a cold breath, as he stared at the man that had been put to rest inside the lower levels of Necros, the most safe.

"Portals do wonders, don't they?" the baron asked back, referring to the new issued *Recalling Gems* which had begun being produced to help key individuals quickly return to Necros in case of emergency defenses.

"Yes they do. This gem was useful, but it cracked. Have another readied." As the Death knight muttered that, he threw a cracked ruby straight back at the baron, who grabbed it with a nod.

"Yes, Commander Gustaf." As the Baron retreated, leaving the two old *friends*, if anyone could actually be a friend of the ruler, alone, the Death knight removed his helm, to show a glint of a wicked smile.

"My ruler, from East to West, Necros rules the land, which is now barren and unholy, your armies are ready; should you wish to take over the North or the South, we will begin immediately. Your flying butchers have been duplicated, and account to fifty numbers, all tested in battles, all fierce to behold. Your cannons account on the two hundred numbers, mounted upon the abominations for mobility, as your notes suggested. Muskets and pistols have been issued and enchanted according to your desires. We are ready for war, Ruler, King of Necros and of the Fertek, Lord Artos Basileus Sfor…so, open your eyes my King, and give us an order."

The red haired wizard slowly opened his eyes, and muttered but a single word:

"Halkeginia", as he wheezed that out, the thought of another pebble being thrown atop a mountain of pebbles entered his mind for a brief moment, and he went back to sleep, he'd need the rest.

Gustaf left his ruler sleep, and exited the room, leaving two death knights guarding the door, and moving towards the Baron, who, deep down in the cave system dug under the city, was polishing non-stop the flag-airplane.

"Baron: The Ruler awoke once more. He orders us against Halkeginia."

"Commander Gustaf, the only way to get there, from the notes of the ruler, is either through them summoning a single being from here, or from the moons conjoining and using the portal thus created…"

"Baron," Gustaf muttered with a slightly irritated tone, "The ruler gave an order: start working on it. Have the necromancer work on it. Have whoever knows how to get there work on it, if it's needed move the damn moon in position!"

"Yes, commander…for the Glory of Necros." The baron replied.

"For the Will of the Ruler," the death knight replied, batting his right gauntlet against his chest plate, which made a dull sound of reply.

"I AM ARTOS' PARTNER FOR ALL THAT IS POINTY!" boomed a voice in the nearby armory. A Zombie had been carrying a strange, but polished, broadsword into the armory, as they were instructed to grab any weapon found lingering around and to bring them inside, in the armory.

Gustaf moved quickly, snapping the Zombie's neck without the slightest regard or concern, and as the undead turned to dust, he grabbed the broadsword in one hand.

"Who are you to speak so freely of the King?" the death knight's tone was badly repressing his own anger, but he had decided not to immediately destroy the disrespectful sword, just in case it actually was a dear friend of the ruler.

"I AM DERFLINGER! THE SWORD OF GANDALFR!" as the broadsword mentioned that, Gustaf was just about to toss it in the ground and then have a Bloated One pass on it, but the thought left him, replaced by another.

"You belong to Halkeginia's country, right?"

"I was forged there! Now, where is my partner!"

"The Ruler of Necros is sleeping…but you will prove useful…once granted a body, that is." As Gustaf grinned inside of his helm, he moved towards the necromancer's lair.

They had a golem to build and magic to do.

***The other side-Two days later***

"Louise Françoise…I don't understand why you're saddened, but…" the voice came from behind the wooden door of the Varsenda ship, and it actually belonged to the queen of Tristain, Henrietta. After the shocking sight, and the then returning Arty, she had kind of hoped for everything to be fine, but Louise hadn't gotten out of her room since then, and had instead kept on ignoring each and every contact.

So, in the end, Henrietta had decided to go herself, and now, after yet not receiving any answer, puffed her cheeks wide and muttered:

"As the Queen of Tristain, but more as your friend, Louise Françoise, I'm coming in!" as she said that, she barged inside, just to find an emotionless and clearly shocked pink-haired girl being in the process of stabbing herself repeatedly on the left hand with a small pocket knife.

Blood had already seeped through the wound, and had begun flowing downwards, toward the bed sheets that had been turning crimson, and as small poodles of set blood had set upon the folds of the blankets, Louise's face seemed not even able to register the pain that she was feeling, because all she was doing was repeating said motion.

"Louise Françoise!" Henrietta screamed, grabbing ahold of Louise's right hand which was holding the knife, and removing it from her fingers. The pink-haired girl stared at the queen with an extremely saddened expression.

"What?" she muttered in a slow whisper.

"What madness has taken hold of you?" as Henrietta muttered her reply with clenched teethes, she began chanting a water spell to heal the wound, a wound which seemed to be not so grievous at first glance, but that in truth had already reached the bone! Louise should have been in a hellish pain, and yet, she stood there, nearly lifeless.

"I can't believe Arty hasn't stopped you in two days!" as Henrietta snapped that, more tears came out of Louise's eyes.

"He's dead." She whispered, "He's dead because I'm a failure and I had to be wounded, so he couldn't go with his original plan and was angry and didn't think and…"

"Françoise…please calm down and explain: Arty is still alive right? He's not here at the moment, but I saw him reappear, as everyone else did and…"

"NO! I'm filthy, I'm a filthy, horrible and monstrous girl," as she screeched that she began to uncontrollably sob, "I lied! I lied to him before he died, I lied to his memory by using illusion magic, so it would seem he was still alive, and have peace! He's dead, and I lied to those who will now keep on thinking he's alive! I'm a monster, I'm evil and I will only repent in pain and despair…please, let me suffer". As she pleaded that, Henrietta stared at her friend with a saddened look.

"You loved him?" she whispered to her pink-haired friend.

"I looked up to him, I idolized him, he was everything I wanted to be, he was the reason I was no longer the zero, he defended me, helped me, helped anyone who was in need. He was always there with words of comfort whenever I needed them, but now…now he's gone, and I insulted his death by using his image for selfish reasons! He was my friend, and I was unworthy of being his…and even though I never would have stood a chance for a place in his heart, I still hoped he would at least notice me, for a bit, as a woman." As Louise whispered that she stretched her unwounded arm, looking at her wrist.

"Maybe I'm not suffering enough." She whispered, but this time, Henrietta slapped her for all her might.

"LOUISE! Louise Françoise, please snap out of this! You were always the direct one, the one who knew always what she wanted to do and said it without too much of a problem! I want you right now to wake up from your brooding! I will not have my friend suffer and die if I can avoid it! Right here, right now, you will swear to me that you will no longer try and kill yourself, or hurt yourself!"

"Why? Just leave me to my pain, I'm not..." she couldn't say the words, because another set of slaps hit her strongly.

"You are the bearer of the Void, Louise, you are worthy enough to be a saint, by the Romalian's church, but more than that, you are my precious friend! So I will not repeat myself: swear or I'll force you to swear." She panted, taking in air after the effort of slapping till her hands went red.

"I…I swear." Louise muttered, her cheeks a deep red color, her eyes staring downward, towards the now dried up blood.

"Good. Now, Louise Françoise, I need to know what Arty meant with a rightful heir. Do you know something?" Henrietta asked, directly, sitting straight next to her, and staring her in an eye deadlock.

"Yes…" Louise fidgeted, "the archduke of Albion had an affair with a mistress, and a girl was born…"

"The Archduke of Albion was the previous king's younger brother, as well as my uncle on my mother's side…that would mean that this girl is also my cousin…" Henrietta muttered, her mind lost in thought, "I need to know what proof there is to that."

"Arty was pretty sure of it." Louise whispered back.

"…except for that?" Henrietta hopefully asked, they couldn't base themselves on that for a claim of succession!

"Arty spoke with Mathilda, and…well, she'd probably know more about it," as she muttered that, a pang of guilt tore inside her soul, how was she going to tell the woman that Arty had died? That the next reappearance hadn't been Arty, but an illusion? She was still waiting for him as of now…

"I have to go! I have to reach Westwood quickly, please, let me handle this! I need to do this, or I'll never find peace!" as Louise pleaded with her worst ever puppy eyes, Henrietta looked with a slight sadness in her eyes at her friend.

"Fine, but you will go there with a body guard, and then you will bring this *Mathilda* and my possible cousin to Londinium, where I'll be waiting together with the generals and the representative from Gallia…I just hope there will be enough of a proof." As the Queen sighed, Louise nodded.

"There will be, or I will force the issue with my hand." As Henrietta stared into the determinate gaze of Louise she couldn't help but smile a little, her friend's eyes were ablaze with determination, as they even had a slight, red, glint.

***Couple of days later***

"Damn it. Why can't this carriage go faster?" She muttered under her breath.

"Why should it? Peace has already been declared," The reply came from Agnes, who had been tasked with protecting, for the moment, Louise.

"Because I have at least five possible outcomes of what could happen if we arrive late, three out of five involve murder, two involve something else. I'm also sure there's a sixth or seventh I have yet to uncover however." Louise muttered once more.

_S: there are thirteen._

_B: Fifty-five!_

_S: NINE THOUSAND and one!_

_B: IT's over…_

_L: SHUT UP YOU TWO PRICKS!_

Agnes didn't reply anymore, the face of the young noble had been a mask of anger and hatred since their departure, and wasn't going any better. The way she held her wand constantly in her right hand, too, it was paranoid, to say the least.

She was starting to bet that the la Vallière girl was going to blow off her head, if she dared ask her something again, so she didn't. She felt a little pang of guilt, when she had been told by the queen about the real fate of the King of Necros, yet she was used to it, and actually had no trouble coping with said loss, instead the girl, a noble to boot, had grown up pampered and in glass walls, and thus took the shock quite abruptly. She had seen it too though, nobody should die such a gruesome death, yet he hadn't even cried, or yelled, Cromwell had screamed like the pig he was, but Artos, he had not. He had simply dispersed in dust, charred dust, without leaving remains.

Then he had reappeared but for a moment, and disappeared once more, and already the voices that the founder's chosen had gone to speak with the founder himself had gone rampant, and the Albion's soldier who had surrendered had begged them to be confessed and pardoned, and the pope himself had deemed it worthy to send someone to represent the church, to issue an official pardon, if all hostility were to be ceased.

She didn't like the pretty blond boy chosen for the task, but she kept her mouth shut tight, no need in antagonizing a pope's representative during a possible heretical inquiry.

The carriage finally reached the destination, and the pink-haired girl dashed outside, as fast as only a lightning could go, Agnes sighed, descending and keeping a hand on the grip of the sword.

The village wasn't in the best of shapes, but it hadn't even been ravaged by the war, still, it would be but a matter of time for brigands or deserters to raid it, so she kind of wondered why it…

At that moment, she stopped and stared to her right, and raised an eyebrow in surprise, as what looked like a sort of lump of rock was staring at her in silent contemplation.

"…" Agnes' mouth opened up in a sort of *WTF* moment, before closing one more.

"Arty's opera?" she whispered, and she just saw it, she'd swear she saw it, the lump of rock and dirt simply nodded, and went back under the earth.

Oh well, that explained the no bandits, and, had they known about it, maybe Louise wouldn't have been so damn agitated and furious about getting there quickly.

When the captain of the musketeers reached the noble, she stopped, deciding that she would no longer be surprised by anything, as the blond girl in front of them, with clear blue eyes and blond hair had such an enormous display of…qualities that made the commander scoff.

Louise on the other hand was busy looking for someone else, as Tiffania had been too shocked to reply to her in the immediate, her fault for not foreseeing a pink flash literally banging down her door, and was now growling a bit more higher.

"Where, is, your sister?" she muttered together with a couple of thoughtful curses that she kept for her mind.

_B: You know you could be a bit more…easy going?_

_L: SHUT UP. Why did it have to be Arty? Why not one of you two mass murderers!_

_S: Hey! I am so *not* a mass murderer! I never killed people in groups you know…always made them form a nice neat line._

_L: SHUT UP._

"She's…in the back…with the children…" Tiffania manage to whisper, and as Louise snorted a grunt as a reply, the girl turned to face the slightly surprised Agnes.

"Are you…a friend of Louise?" she asked, as Louise had already vacated the premises to go towards the back of the house.

"Bodyguard, actually, I'm here to escort her and the Albion's royalty heir to Londinium, and then, depending on the solidity of the proof, it should be made official or not." As the blond stern woman replied, Tiffania simply shivered at the thought of leaving her village.

"I…see." She whispered, staring towards a really ornate and intricate carillon that had been placed on the table in the living room, which was also the first room one would have entered from the outside, then she suddenly startled and exclaimed turning a slight red hue:

"I'm sorry! Do you want to come in? I'll prepare some tea!" she blubbered as she invited the musketeer inside, before dashing off to the kitchen.

"Well…she's either the real deal, or she was conned into this…" Agnes muttered, there was no way someone so…naïf, as her, could possibly be feigning it.

Five minutes later, Agnes stiffened, staring at how Louise was practically dragging back holding her by hand the wanted criminal Fouquet!

"Mat…Mathilda? That's Fouquet the crumbling earth!" Agnes snarled as she stood up, gun at the ready.

"Down with the gun! She's also Mathilda of Saxe-Gotha as a noble, she'll get processed only by another noble!" Louise retorted back, without flinching.

Agnes bit her lower lip but said nothing as she re-holstered her weapon.

"Good. Now we move to Londinium by carriage, where's the girl?" Louise queried.

"She's making tea." Agnes replied.

"Ehm…can I have my hand back?" Mathilda hesitantly asked, to which Louise stared at her, then at her still holding the thief's hand.

"Fine, we wait for some tea to come around. You might need it while we're at it. Sit down and I'll explain." As Louise said that rolling her eyes, she let go of the hand of the green haired woman, and as Mathilda sat down a bit surprised by a sudden change in emotions from the young noble, Agnes muttered to the shocked thief:

"She's been like this for a while now. Don't go against her, it's better that way."

"First things first: Arty's dead. Get over it now." Mathilda stared at the words coming out of Louise with utter shock. What? What was that girl saying, wha…

"WHAT!" she screeched.

"Second thing, I hope you've got convincing arguments for those guys in Londinium; I'll help you get heard by them, but unless there's at least some solid proof, then…"

"How did he die? When!" Mathilda muttered, tears forming in her eyes.

"I'll tell you in the carriage while we go towards Londinium, we'll have time then." Louise replied, before swiftly adding:

"Third thing: if there is anything, anything at all about the girl that we must know, then tell us now. Like sterility, or being or not pure, or similar, even if proof is brought up, we must make sure she's got nothing that can bring her down just as swiftly," As Louise kept on speaking, Mathilda turned with an angry stare towards Agnes.

"Can I hit her?" she muttered.

"I was willing to hit her first." Agnes replied.

"Try it and I'm bringing you both by force back to Londinium." Louise snapped, "You think I don't care! We just don't have damn time! If we don't hurry, someone else will come with a different claim, or they'll already decide on a governor of sort, and with Arty gone, there's no telling how Germania will arm strength itself back in here. At the present, even Romalia could go and claim Albion is hers, since Arty called himself the Founder's chosen! Why are you not seeing how big the mess really is!" Louise yelled.

She too wouldn't have seen it, in her naivety, but she had two voices in her head born of wickedness and evil, and just hearing what they would have done was more than enough, that, and the fact that they were incessantly doing their best to keep her awake at night with different and horrible facts on Arty's life, in an attempt to make her *better* was actually making her worst, yet they knew, and gleefully kept it on.

_S: I think she's about to have a mental breakdown._

_B: Sure hope she doesn't, there's enough negativity in the air as of now._

_L: SHU…_

_S&B: SHUT UP YOU PINK-HAIRED WORTHLESS MORTAL! He died because of YOU!_

_L: Why can't you stop? Why?_

_S: New deal: You don't shut us up, and we stop insulting you._

_L: Fine! Fine, for the founder's sake fine! _

_B: Deal's done._

"I…I see." Agnes muttered, "But still, there is way and way of telling someone something."

"…I'll need time…" Mathilda whispered.

"You'll have it in the carriage; now where did that girl go!" Louise yelled, to which a disturbingly trembling Tiffania slowly came out of the kitchen's door, holding a half-empty tea pot.

"I heard about…" she began in a whisper, but was cut off too.

"I DON'T CARE. GET IN THE DAMN CARRIAGE NOW OR I'LL SNAP YOUR LEGS AND CARRY YOU THERE MYSELF!" as she screamed that, her hand was already up and ready to strike, as the tea pot Tiffania was carrying fell down, crashing in a thousand pieces, and both Agnes and Mathilda stared flabbergasted at the girl whose eyes were literally ablaze with fury.

"SAME FOR YOU! AND YOU!" she basically commanded to both Agnes and Mathilda, who stood up in fear and actually obeyed her orders, as if some sort of compulsion to obey was in order.

Tiffania was simply crying her eyes out but not preferring to disobey she quickly ran towards her elder sister, and as they moved towards the carriage, Louise exited behind them, and, at a safe distance, turned towards the house, wand raised.

"Explosion" she muttered, and the next moment, a searing ball of white light engulfed the house, leaving behind nothing but cinders. Tiffania stared utterly shocked at the scene, there were her clothes, her memories in that house, there was her mother's gift of the carillon box, there was also the founder's censer box, and the sky ruby in there. How could the noble destroy all of it!

_B: Why did you do that?_

_S: Yes, why?_

_L: I…what?_

Louise stared for a moment, then turned around to see faces of shock, but more than that, faces of fear. They feared her, so be it! She shook her head, removing unnatural thoughts, and went towards the carriage.

"There is no turning back! To Londinium, or I'll bring your charred remains with me!"

Obviously, they all complied, and as the voyage went on in silence, only one thought lingered into Louise's mind.

_What have I done? And WHY!_

***Londinium-One day later***

"And in the name of the Founder, I grant mercy to those who will bow and pray for salvation for their immortal soul." The arch-bishop's hymn raised itself high into the sky of the ready to downpour clouds, and the people in there, knelt and prayed. They had been fools, and heretics, and now, those who had made them sin would pay.

A young girl of barely thirteen stood there, nearly naked, after a couple of rough nights in prison, having suffered tortures and excruciating pains the likes of which had left her half insane, and now, even then, she was being the subject of horrendous curses and of the throwing of rotten fruits and vegetables. She couldn't defend herself, tied to the pyre where she was, at the center of the square. The cold gusts of the wind freezing her skin, fear grabbing hold of her soul.

_They were with me, they called me saint, from saint to witch, in a couple of days…why? Why couldn't I simply die there? I'm sorry…maybe I really spoke with demons and made plans with the devils…I'm going to rot in hell for all eternity…why…_

As broken thoughts lingered in her mind, and tears began rolling down her cheeks, from a balcony not too far stood Henrietta, forcing herself to watch the scene while trying to hide her disgust, as did the Gallian's representative, none less than Charlotte Helene, the princess of Gallia, who had still hoped to meet with her friend Arty, and was still wondering why he hadn't made his presence known now. Would he be in favor of such practice? Or would he not?

At least the young girl wasn't alone, as many believers had been crucified by the church herself, and their bodies were a sign and an admonishment from the church of Brimir that the indulgence would be either accepted, or forced in death.

Charlotte shivered, and the Romalian's representative chose that moment to speak:

"Well, it's sad that this happened to one so young, but certainly, it's all because young people are more easily strayed from the path of the Founder, especially when they are granted power, they tend to become corrupted by it." This was also like a subtle menace, a subtle menace that both Charlotte and Henrietta understood.

"Certainly, everyone should know this, it's a common precept taught by the holy bishops," as Henrietta muttered that, the Arch-bishop down in the square ended his prayer, and then the executioner moved forward, torch in hand, ready to lit on the fire.

As the fire began to spread, the people stared in silence, and as the young girl began to cry, the fire touched her feet. In that moment, the flame was put out.

Everyone stood perplexed at such a sight, but then the executioner moved once more, torch in hand, but this time, he rinsed a piece of clothing in oil, and threw it at the girl's feet. There, he threw the torch, and the torch, like on cue, was lit off by something.

The Archbishop stared in surprise at the scene.

There was an event like that in the holy book of the founder, it was an event which however, no matter how many had been crucified, burned on a pyre, hanged or something else, had ever happened.

If a man found culprit of heresy does not die of the execution, after trying it twice, then he is to be freed, as god himself has proven him innocent.

"Keep trying," the archbishop muttered at the executioner, who stared back at him in shocked surprise, before falling down on his knees and praying for salvation.

The archbishop didn't understand, not until a sword passed him side by side, tearing him apart, as his gaze went backwards, his neck reclined, and the face of a red skinned man with angel-like winged, yet blackish at the extremities , stood there, watching him in anger. Then the sword reclined, and the Brimir's faithful fell down, dead, on the square's floor.

"Evil will be punished. So that Good will not prevail." The next moment, two other of such fierce angels emerged, and, like they had just received the order, they began slaughtering the amassed people in the square, one by one, sparing only the young girl, tied to the pyre, who had all but fainted at the sight.

Up in the balcony, Julio Chesare stared at the scene unfolding, not believing in his own eyes, angels of blood had descended upon the square, tearing apart the Brimir's recently reconverted faithful. Furthermore, they had spared the young witch, a sign that maybe Brimir was displeased for not having understood her innocence? Yet…one of the angels turned to face him, and, by consequence, the other representatives on the balcony, opening his majestic wings, it flew upwards, reaching them in but a moment. In silence, it scanned the individuals that had already gotten to their feet, and with his eyes dead-locked on them, it muttered:

"We have been tasked with rebalancing good with evil. We are the Concordant Killers…do not hinder our work." As he muttered that, his sword flickered to light, and Julio Chesare saw no more.

Then, without a word, the angel moved once more, away from them, and not too late, Louise arrived near Londinium, the carriage actually stopping just at the outskirts of the capital, and the pink-haired girl stared out with her gaze at the people fleeing the city, as fires had begun to spread around the wall buildings, built one next to the other.

"Stay here." Louise muttered to both Tiffania and Mathilda, who nodded, while Agnes herself had exited the carriage and was detaching the two horses that usually pulled it. Louise mounted one without even speaking, and began galloping swiftly followed by the musketeer's captain.

"What's going on!" Agnes yelled, as they passed through the gates, dead bodies littering the streets, slashes cutting through them grievously, cries of children and scared kids were being heard all around them, like they were being amassed somewhere.

"I go to the queen, you look for the children! We meet back at the carriage!" Louise yelled back, and Agnes nodded, following the source of the noise.

Louise gritted her teethes, as the square where she had previously fought together with Arty showed itself once more, it was like a pyre had been prepared, and a girl was standing there, ready to be burned. Yet it wasn't lit, and the girl stood there, having fainted from the shock, probably.

She bit her lower lip and descended from the horse, moving closer to the girl, she had red hair, and just the thought of who that hair belonged to made Louise angry once more, yet there she was. Would Arty approve of this? Cruelty on such a young girl? No, he wouldn't. Yet she had destroyed the home of the girl, why had she done that? Why had she so angrily replied to Agnes, or to Mathilda? Why was she simply so angry in that moment?

_Have you been toying with my emotions?_

_No. We would be more subtle. That's why we were shocked too._

_So…who?_

_B: No clue, maybe it's just schizophrenia taking its toll._

_S: Or maybe it's just good old madness coming at you._

_B: What I said is the same._

_S: Madness, ah breath it in, breath in the name *Madness*, spell it, repeat it, lick it!_

_B: He's just messing with you._

_L: What should I do now with this girl?_

As Louise said that, she moved closer to the girl in question, she was so young, yet so…guilty. So naïf, like she once was, maybe, so defenseless as of the moment. So she raised her wand, and waited, for counsel.

_B: Just free her. There's no need to insist, she was used. Like we were. Nothing more, nothing less. _

_S: Every servant of a deity serves either because he doesn't know better, or because he willingly decides it, in the first case, it's ignorance the cause, in the second, it's never the second. Nobody actually knows what he's serving, or who he is serving, until death takes you, and even then, how can you define with just a word, like *good* or *bad* something? Someone is not good, or bad, someone is someone._

_B: deep thoughts from you? I'm surprised._

_L: Me too._

_S: I'm the strongest out of you lot! Respect for the Demilich! _

_B: You mean the oldest._

Louise moved closer, climbing upon the pile of wooden splinters and sticks, and as a light drizzle began falling, she released the girl, holding her tightly, so that she would not fall down, and carrying her to her horse muttering how heavy a thirteen year old could be. When she actually did that, she turned around, to see Sylphid landing on the square, Tabitha and Henrietta on its back, and whispered a silent thank you.

"Louise Françoise!" Henrietta yelled, "We need to leave the city! It's not safe!"

"What's going on your majesty?" Louise asked as she mounted her horse once more.

"There are strange angel-like creatures! They're targeting the founder's faithful who were in the square, and they killed the Romalian's representative!" Charlotte replied, looking around quickly.

"They said something about killing evil to balance good, did Arty ever speak about…" but she couldn't finish the sentence, as Sylphid did her best to fly backwards, earning herself a grazing wound from one of said concordant killers who had appeared out of nowhere.

"I am Derfezzel, first of three chosen. More evil needs to be cleansed today." As Tabitha flew upwards, as Tabitha and Henrietta both began chanting, the dusk-winged angel turned his gaze towards Louise, raising his sword, in a salute, he disappeared once more.

_S: JUMP DOWN!_

Louise obeyed, falling to the side, together with the young girl, as the horse was neatly sliced in half by an invisible strength.

_B: RUN. LEAVE THE GIRL AND RUN._

Louise once more scrambled back on her feet nimbly, beginning to run away from the square, where she had been seconds before a deep fissure formed in the ground.

_S: Concordant killers, beings of neutrality, invisibility, melee attacks preferred, they gauge their opponents, and their swords disappear on death. _

_B: They are too strong for you. I or Sfor could take them on with ease, but you? You're screwed._

_L: THANKS!_

_S: Keep on running._

_B: SIDESTEP RIGHT!_

Louise brought all her weight to the right side, ending in a small and tight passaged alleyway, for a moment, a gust of wind followed her, but then, it suddenly stopped, as a set of Ice Javelins and a water tornado fell down from the sky, revealing the concordant killer, as the light drizzle had turned in rain.

While it rains, a water mage is normally undefeatable, that is because they are able to feel the vibrations of the droplets around them, and thus invisibility…wouldn't have worked.

The concordant killer didn't know that, however, and as he charged invisibly upwards, he was met with a fierce resistance, coming both from air blades that were quite capable of slightly wounding him, and water walls, that forced him to deviate his charges, stopping him from straight-on attacking. As he growled, angrily, someone, down below, began chanting.

_S: IT's suicide._

_B: I concur._

_S: Let us leave._

_B: let us run._

_S: You're going to die._

_B: and we with you._

_S: I mean, we had a pretty nice unlife till now._

_B: please, let us go!_

"Explosion!" Louise yelled once more.

_S: We're going to die!_

_B: May the Weave have mercy on us all!_

The next moment, the bright flash of light that was the explosion spell engulfed the concordant killer, as a searing pain like never before tore him apart to levels he couldn't believe, his wings charred to bone remains, as he fell downwards, grievously impacting on the ground, extremely weakened, but still able to stand back up.

"You…that power…what is…that," he muttered, conjuring his sword once more, but as it used it to stand up, a set of ice javelin tore him apart from above, as he coughed up blood, falling down, his last words, under the rain, and his last thoughts, went to how he had failed his brothers so soon.

_S: …_

_B: I'm not seeing this._

_L: I…I defeated him! Did you see that!_

_S: No. This is just. This is wrong on so many levels._

_B: Nineteen levels of difference, minimum. I'd say far more._

_L: What are you talking about?_

_S: A CONCORDANT KILLER! DAMNIT! It's a killer sent by the gods, you shouldn't have been able to curb-stomp him by flicking that wand of yours! Impossible!_

_B: Utterly insane!_

_L: So maybe you underestimated me._

_S: This *Void* thing, it wasn't this strong before._

_B: I'm seeing a connection now. Wait a second._

_S: Yeah, I'm coming with you too._

_L: Where are you two *going* ?_

_B&S: Speaking to a silent tenant of your head._

As Charlotte and Henrietta descended from Sylphid, the corpse sprouted into flames that consumed it all, until only the crater where he had impacted remained.

Louise moved closer to the two royalties, but kept looking around herself, worried.

"Louise Françoise…what were those things?" Henrietta muttered, looking at the crater.

"Assassins paid by the gods," Louise whispered back, and as she whispered that, the rain became a downpour, and since nobody knew what to say, they all mounted Sylphid, who, while flying above the town, proceeded to grab the *heretical girl* and brought her with them on his paws.

"Where is Agnes?" Henrietta asked, staring ahead of her, and downwards.

"We heard children's cries, so she went to check on them…she should still be in the city," Louise replied, a bit tired.

"Then let's look for her." Charlotte stated, as Sylphid began scanning the area.

***Agnes' side***

The children's cries echoing in the city turning into one big pyre reminded her of her hometown, or what charred remains still lingered in that place, Angleterre. Who would do such a feat? There was no army, no soldiers fighting, only slaughter, who could do such a feat and go unscathed? Only the conjoined forces of Tristain and Germania were in town, yet, why? Soldiers were ripped to shreds, by an uncanny and unstoppable force. The pikemen, the swordsmen, the armored and the lightly armored, the musketeer's corps and entire piles of bodies were burning brightly, it had a certain order to it. Agnes followed the cries till she reached a smaller, round and on three quarters protected by building, back-alley. In there, the kids were staying scared out of their wits, some were crying, calling for their parents, while others were even then holding torn or cleanly cut off limbs from those who maybe were accompanying them.

When Agnes arrived, however, they all quieted down, staring at her in fright and scared, the stern woman wasn't one of those angels, that had to be certain, but still, they didn't know how to act.

"What happened here?" she asked softly, but none of the kids answered immediately.

"You boy." She whispered, talking to the oldest one of the lot, "what happened?"

"The heretic was about to be burned, but the fire didn't spread and died twice, but when the archbishop tried to light it on fire again, the angels of founder Brimir's wrath came down to punish him and all the sinners…" as he muttered that, he looked with watery eyes on the ground.

"They move like gusts of wind, invisible to the naked eye. They strike anything that attacks them first, and nothing seems to wound them!" a girl spoke next, strongly holding on to a cut off hand.

"What have we done wrong?" another girl cried, and soon they began crying again.

Agnes didn't understand, but then, the children froze, and she slowly turned around, hand on her sword.

There it was, a being well-built for his physique, two blackish wings and fiery red skin, two eyes that looked like an abyss of nothingness, a sword flickering in his hand, it studied her, like if it were amused.

"Another one so uncertain of its path." He muttered, before making his sword disappear.

"I'm going to have to test you." He added, not caring for the fact that Agnes had been pointing a flintlock pistol at him for a while.

"That won't graze me, woman. So you'd better listen."

"Why are you doing this?" Agnes muttered back.

"Because we are balancing the scale, good is being toppled, thus evil needs to be cleansed: Neutrality must ensure." The being talked back, his voice was like hearing a water droplet fall on a stone tablet, only with different heights, it changed itself, while the face flickered with ever changing emotions.

"Is it good to kill children's parents!" Agnes angrily snapped back.

"Anger, that's evil all right. That said, should a sinner be spared only because he's a parent? A sinner is a sinner, an evil man is an evil man. That much is certain."

"How can you be so conceited? There is no such thing as black and white."

"Searching for an alternative to a law is chaotic. Law is order, chaos is disorder. You are a chaotic person, aren't you?"

"No! As the captain of the musketeer's corps I serve her majesty proudly!" Agnes snapped back.

"Really?" the angel-like creature grinned, before muttering, "So, would you kill a child, if your queen ordered you to?"

"My queen would never…"

"Answer the question, or die." As the angel angrily said that, his sword reappeared in his right hand, pointed at the musketeer.

"I would never serve such a queen!" Agnes yelled, as she pulled the trigger of the gun.

"Chaotic Evil, alright" the angel replied with a smile, as the bullet hit him straight on the chest, but then harmlessly bounced off, not doing any sort of damage.

Then the angel charged straight ahead, disappearing into nothingness, but Agnes was prepared, raising her sword, expecting an attack straight in front of her, but instead, a slash on the side made her cry in pain, as a searing feeling of burning inside tore her soul and she fell on the ground, bleeding heavily.

The angel reappeared only then, pointing his sword at her, ready to strike the death blow, but as it descended, another sword intercepted his. In that moment, another angel had appeared.

"What is it, Chorus?" the first snorted to the recently arrived.

"Derfezzel died, Bessagon." The other replied grimly, and as the first's eyes blazed in fury, the other nodded with him, and then, they both disappeared.

Agnes held tightly her wounded area, trying her best to get back on her feet, panting. She was alive, but the pain, the pain was still there, it snapped at her for every step she was taking, as she stumbled against a wall to catch her breath.

The kids silently watching her, as she uncorked a metal flask, filled with Gin, and drinking a hefty dose of it.

"Well, better die happy and drunk, rather than bitter and sober." She muttered, and as shadow took over, a sort of blurry blue thing moved into her vision, as the rain poured down heavily upon her head.

_Come back to finish the job, huh? Well…too tired._

***Hours later***

When Agnes opened her eyes, she was in a carriage, together with Mathilda, and Tiffania, who were staring at her worriedly. Next to her stood Henrietta, who had been healing her wounds with care, while it seemed that Louise and Charlotte weren't inside, even though there was a battering rain coming from outside.

"What happened?" she whispered, to which Henrietta gave an awry smile, before whispering back:

"It seems the founder isn't the only god around…and one of the other gods has sent his assassins…"

"There were kids…where I was…" Agnes muttered.

"They scattered when we landed, but the assassins stopped attacking, so maybe…the city is safe now, anyway we are moving back to Tristain, where we will discuss about my new found cousin." As Henrietta said that eying Tiffania, the blonde big chested girl reddened and nodded in embarrassment.

Suddenly, the carriage stopped, as a knock was heard by the door that opened to reveal a drenched in water Louise, who entered in silence, closing it behind her.

"I've recalled something Arty used to say." She muttered, as she sat, albeit unwillingly, between Mathilda and Tiffania, who both stared at her with slightly angry stares.

"What? He told you about these creatures?" Mathilda queried.

"No, about how there were no gods, so since from where he comes from god exists and are utterly powerful beings, it's probable some god wanted a head start on others, and brought him here." Louise whispered.

"Why would they bring Arty here, Louise Françoise?" Henrietta queried puzzled.

"Because his form was more of an immaterial one, than material, at the moment I summoned him. He was a Demilich, a being of unfathomable power, nearly made of pure raw arcane and negative energies, in that way, he could travel through any plane except the positive one, and thus, when the summon began, a god most likely altered reality to allow such passage among dimensions to happen through portals directly connected to energy planes. I engulfed a portal to the negative plane, and from that came Arty's dependence on being close to me for arcane and negative energies, being him *mostly* composed of it. The form we all knew him for, the material one, the one of Arty, is due to a spell he perfected and created, which fools reality itself, into believing that he is still alive, and good. This happens also to him, who becomes kind-hearted and prone to trust to the point of idiocy."

"Wait…" Mathilda whispered, but Louise kept going on.

"He isn't alone: there are Basileus and Sfor, the first being him when he attained Lichdom, and the second being him when he attained the Demilich status. The first represents the law of the contract, a requisite for the epic spell to be easier, while the second represents his evilness and cunningness, Arty was his good part, when they swapped, however, the phylactery became his soul anew and the skull became his body, that's why he was human, but now…his *soul* was torn into three pieces, to achieve this result, and two of them, being negatively charged, drifted towards my portal to the negative plane, and are now in my head, talking to me, yelling at me, screaming at me not to say anything more, but I can't, because I have to take a decision I cannot take alone."

"Louise…" Henrietta muttered, staring wide eyed, but Louise kept on talking.

"They speak to me, and tell me what I need to know, they don't want me to die because they'd die too, but the point is another one, the point is that in order to stop the gods, the portals of good and evil need to be forever imprisoned somewhere, in order to prevent the two sides of the battle to enter the field. I am the portal of evil, but since I have the void, the void is closing it off, and both Basileus and Sfor act as reinforcements…the other portal instead, needs to be found, and banished into another dimension…or imprisoned for all eternity somewhere he won't be found…and…I need to go with him." Tears began falling.

"Because if I don't I'll turn mad, or corrupted, or worst, because the Void is alive, and wants me to kill the remaining users to be complete once more, and because she's controlling how much she holds back from the portal, and therefore she decides how much evil I am…I destroyed Tiffania's house because she was pissed for me not destroying those objects before, and she wants the other voids users, and their familiars, dead…so please, tell me…what should I do?"

And as she asked that question, the carriage turned into a silent reflection.

**Author's notes**

**Concordant killers are a GS 19 monster manual 5. **

**Plot is moving. Plot is proceeding, plot is being a good boy.**

**Now, as always, thanks for any review you *throw* my way, and I was thinking, if there is anything you haven't understood of the point plots already explained (I ain't spoilering you), just ask, as I always enjoy replying to the reviews I take.**

**Ps: this month, 12.400 hits! Of which 8.000 came directly from this one! With over 3.000 visitors!**

**Thanks to you guys who read my fanfiction!**

**(I'd be even happier if you'd leave a comment, since there is also the anonymous reviews on), but never the less, thank you for reading! **

**Final Notes:**

**The religious ideology of the founder church was taken from the medieval inquisition, last I recalled, there was a law stating that, if the *mean of murder* like beheadment, didn't work twice in a row, then the criminal was judged innocent by god, and freed.**

**I took the freedom of giving the Void a sort of mind, like the Naruto's kyuubi, to say. **

**I'm depicting the dungeons and dragons gods the same way the greek depicted their own in their mythology, as arrogant/jealous/prideful/egoistical…even the good guys, (literally, Zeus was a serial rapist, and that is to say the least out of them).**

**Anyway, who knows when I'll get the next chapter dished out?**

**Shadenight123, salutes!**


	13. Chapter 13: Breaking Equilibrium

**In this chapter, I break Louise, and some other characters. Sorry for that.**

Chapter thirteen

_B: Do you know what horror story teach?_

_L: What?_

_B: That cruelty and stupidity will both be paid in blood._

_L: I never thought of it that way._

As Louise was thinking that, she was sitting in a room, back in the Tristain's royal palace, together with the Half-Elf Tiffania, who hadn't revealed her nature till their arrival right there. What's more, Henrietta was outright knocked out by the shock and was laying in the bed, while Agnes had been barely calmed down from tearing a new smile into Fouquet's neck, since she could have warned them days before, but didn't.

Charlotte was the only one who had kept her cool and her calm, sipping tea without qualms.

"You do realize this will bring forth problem with Romalia," Agnes muttered, "They didn't hesitate to burn down villages during the Protestant reforms."

"Romalia has bigger problems now: trying to explain to their people what happened to their representative in Londinium is one." Mathilda replied.

"They'll give the fault on Tiffania, that's what they'll do." Charlotte said, "and then on us, because we helped her escape a *rightful wrath of the founder* who wanted no elf on the throne of Albion."

Tiffania trembled, whispering:

"Can't I go back home now?"

"No, there's a risk those red skinned angels are out for your blood too." Louise muttered.

"So…what should I do?" Tiffania asked once more.

"You…you'll need somewhere safe, likewise for Mathilda...headmaster Osmond still hasn't got a new secretary, the new term at the magic academy was going to start soon, and with the war over, even though no-one still rules Albion, people should still be in a decent mood. We move Tiffania to the academy, Mathilda gets pardoned, or better yet, Ms. Longueville gets pardoned her trying to steal something from the vault for some reason, and then we take every bit of knowledge we can take from Basileus and Sfor, until we have more than enough to fight back on equal grounds. In the meantime, I grab all Void related artifacts and destroy them with my hands." As Louise said that, she grabbed a bottle of wine, and raised it into the air, "But that is tomorrow. Today, we drink till we drop in memory of a wonderful man: Arty." And with that said, she began to chug down on the bottle.

"There…this was weak stuff," she muttered, dropping the empty bottle on the table, and staring at the other persons in the room, "What?" she muttered.

"Nothing," Mathilda replied gazing sideways.

"Good..." then Louise stared at the fainted Henrietta, and moved closer, with a slightly nervous stare.

Agnes realized it too late, as Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière slapped the fainted queen back to her senses, she stared in utter shock at such a display of straightforwardness.

Henrietta slowly opened her eyes, not understanding why her cheeks were hurting, but seeing the familiar faces she made a small smile and stood back up.

"That was…a surprise, dear cousin." She whispered, looking at Tiffania.

"You trust our word, your majesty?" Mathilda asked surprised, to which Henrietta nodded.

"It's something my Mother told me once, that her younger brother had told her through letters that he had found a woman she loved, but who was too different for their union to be accepted…still…" as Henrietta said that, she slowly massaged her cheeks, why did they hurt so much?

"What should we do now?" as the Queen asked that, Louise explained her plan, once more.

"It could work, Louise Françoise, but are you sure you will manage, with…those problems?" as the queen asked that, Louise sighed.

_B: I am not a problem._

_S: Especially because you're not soluble._

_B: What?_

_S: A problem needs a SOLUTION._

_B: I'm dying inside, bit by bit, hearing such puns._

_L: I'm feeling sick too._

"Yes…" Louise replied as she shivered, "if nothing else, they are *still* Arty, albeit the more wicked version of him…so I should be able to bring up a plan to counter the enemy gods sooner or later."

"On that regards…could you all leave me alone with Louise Françoise please? There was something I wanted to discuss with Arty, but I never got the time to." As Henrietta asked that, everyone left the room in a slight hurry, except Agnes who eyed suspiciously Louise once, before still obeying the orders.

"Louise Françoise, listen…I need to know from your two…other persons, inside of you, if they know what happened to the Albion's loyalist in Newcastle." As Henrietta asked that, she bit her lower lip, waiting a reply.

_S: Yep._

_L: You know!_

_B: Yes, we do._

_L: THEN TELL ME!_

_S: Are you sure you want to know, little girl?_

_B: Some secrets are darker than the deepest pits of evilness._

_S: Precisely. It will shake your soul to unfathomable depths._

_B: It will open cracks that might just as well destroy you._

_S: You are simply not strong, or shrew enough to know._

_L: Tell me...tell me everything._

Henrietta stared at the face of Louise slowly turning paler, bringing a hand to her mouth and tears coming out of her eyes, she saw her best friend fall on her knees, sobbing and crying without control, she saw her start hitting her head, and so she swiftly fell down too, holding her arms to avoid her any further damage.

"What's going on Louise? What are they telling you?" as the Princess asked that, Louise kept crying and shaking her head, sobbing.

"Prince Wales is dead, your highness, as are all the loyalists and all their families aboard the Eagle, the ship was sent back not empty, but filled with ethereal undeads known as shadows, who had a mission of their own…" as Louise kept on crying, she managed to pull out more words:

"They…they have this contract, by which if one wishes to do something that would compromise their morality, they are actually forced by the others, thus there is a need to complete a task for the other two…Arty asked Sfor and Basileus to help me in the event of him not being able to, to basically protect me. In exchange, Basileus asked for a set of tests subjects among the nobility and Sfor for a set among the civilians, and so Basileus took control and harnessed the bodies, and souls, sending them back through the rules of the summoning, to Necros. Prince Wales is not completely dead, but is an undead, and as of now, if everything went as it should, they say he should be a Death knight, loyal only to them, as the others undead…"

Tears began falling from Henrietta's eyes, tears and shock, and inability to understand. Why? Why did they die? To become test subjects? Were they all but test subjects in the eyes of the two wicked beings? Two wicked beings that resided inside of her dear friend Louise Françoise? Should she kill her friend, to let them die? Should she make her friend pay, to let them pay? She had no idea.

"Leave me alone, Louise." She muttered, and Louise, wobbling, got back on her feet and left from the door, after having bowed her head in shame.

_S: You lied pretty well._

_B: Good. The pebbles are being cast._

_L: I don't like it one bit, but I will follow your guide for now, but if you're conning me…then may the crawling chaos cast you in the depth of hell himself._

_S&B: Yes ma'am._

Outside, Louise locked her gaze to that of Agnes, and muttered:

"The Queen will probably want to be left alone for a while," as soon as she said that, the captain of the musketeers whispered in a low growl.

"I don't care how powerful you are, you are a bomb set on self-destruction, but I will not let you carry the Queen to her grave with you."

"Even if we go to our graves, do you truly think it would be the end? There is something worse than dying, Agnes, but I'll let you discover that on your own." As Louise whispered that, she moved along the corridors till the garden, and from there out in the bustling streets.

***Two Days later-Tristain's Magic academy***

"So, I'd like to introduce our new pupil, Miss Tiffania Westwood, as well as my new secretary, declared innocent of all charges, Ms. Longueville," as the Headmaster said that, standing from the second floor of the Alviss dining room, the students began murmuring once more, but soon their murmurs died out, as Tiffania bowed and then stood back up, her chest wiggling catching the attention of all the male students, and the male students population staring in awe caught the attention of the entire female population.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all!" she fumbled, her face red in embarrassment.

She soon took her place at the empty seat in the midst of the first years, while Ms. Longueville waited a second, just because she was in a good mood, before slapping the headmaster once more for having been fondling her bottom.

"Bad habits are hard to break, eh?" she muttered, taking her seat, and realizing something.

"Where is Professor Colbert?" as Mathilda asked that question, the Headmaster sighed staring at the ceiling with dreamy eyes.

"The forbidden relationships that cannot be expressed, like love for a step-sister, or for a family member, or for a teacher-student relationship, eh…who would have thought he…"

"Okay, stop. I understood enough of it." Mathilda snapped back, sending the headmaster to whine in silence in a corner. Why couldn't someone understand him!

Louise instead was sitting among the second year students, listening to the chatter, which for her was petty, to say the most, like what type of lingerie was effective to conquer a man, obviously spoken by the Zerbst, to what type of perfume would work best in the summer, standing to Montmorency. What hurt more were the condolence from people who didn't even know Arty well enough, from those done more because it was a ritual, to those in order to ingratiate her, she felt nothing at all, no longer sad, no longer angry, just, devoid of emotions. For her all that talk was…tasteless, it was meaningless, futile and worthless, she ate was she needed, and nothing more, standing up and attempting to leave in silence, only to be blocked by someone calling her name.

"Louise!" as the pink-haired girl turned around, she stared in surprise as the one who had talked to her with such familiarity hadn't been Kirche, or Guiche, but Charlotte herself, who went on speaking.

"I need to speak to you later on, so I'll swing by your room tonight." As she said that, she made a smile that sent the entire student's body into a state of utter shock and surprise, except those who actually knew Tabitha a bit better, and had known what had happened first hand.

Many began pinching or biting their hands, some even going to the point of hitting their heads against the table, the ice queen had just smiled and spoken in a girlish manner, HER!

Louise nodded, and then excused herself from the dining room; she moved towards her room, she had to try one thing: she had to be sure, a hundred percent sure, of everything.

Once inside, and having locked the door, she raised her wand, and began chanting the words she knew far too well, as she had been reversing the entire process in her mind for the days and nights before, and was utterly determined to take it till the end, whatever happened, in whatever way it happened.

"My familiar who lives somewhere in this universe, my beautiful, divine and powerful familiar, I CALL YOU FORTH!" as the words were finished, a green portal opened up in front of her, it twirled, silently, and then, after a brief moment, a hand appeared.

After the hand, came an arm, and thick purple clothing, golden trimmed with red motif, and after the arm, came a body held in royal robes, all of which had the symbols of Necros sewn on it, while his other hand held a staff, as black as the darkest of nights, with skulls crying blood, his eyes came forth as the brightest green Louise had ever seen, his red hair slowly and finally appeared, and with a slow, deliberate motion, Artos Basileus Sfor, King of Necros, Destroyer of Good, Reapers of Souls, owner of the thunder and of the death wings, Founder's chosen, smiled gently at the pink-haired girl in front of him.

"It took you long enough." He whispered to her, moving closer.

Louise stared at the man for a moment, her wildest delusions had readied her for this, but her logical and rational mind had sent her on a babbling spree.

_S: That's…that's not possible._

_B: Am I seeing it? Really? _

_L: What do you mean? Is it a ruse?_

She suddenly narrowed her eyes, staring at the man who was looking back with a slightly surprised look, as his staff turned to the normal wooden form.

_S: Nah, just messing with you._

_B: We knew it was a fifty-fifty chance at best, and now he gave confirmation._

_L: WHAT!_

_S: Hey, we didn't know, alright? We needed to be sure of it! _

_B: And it seems we were._

"I know you've got questions, I'm pretty sure you have a lot of them, but right now there is something I need to tell you," as he said that, hurriedly, Louise stared nodding, clenching her fists as she tried to compose herself. She was no longer a kid! She had to act mature, understand, and come up with plans! She couldn't let herself revert back to her old useless self! She had slapped the queen! She had to show off her spine.

"There is *no* second chance here: if I die again I'm gone, as good as gone, I couldn't create another set of contingencies in time with everything else, and you got lucky I had just rested enough before coming here, furthermore, the moment I walk out in the sun, they are probably going to tighten the two-way thing."

Louise had no idea what he was saying, but felt glad he wasn't making any sense at all: he was good old Arty alright.

"Oh, I see. Now you know what? I'm going to punch you, hard. Then punch you again, harder. Then I'm going to keep hitting you, repeatedly, until I'm satisfied, got it?" as Louise said that, cracking her fists and preparing herself to strike, but stopping after the first, light, hit on the wizard's chest.

"All here?" he muttered back to her, opening up his arms, as Louise hugged him tightly, nuzzling her face into his warmness, feeling his heart beating and being deeply happy he was there, for her.

_B: You mind updating him on the recent changes?_

_L: Just a moment more._

_S: Aw, she's got her teddy bear back! do you want cookie and milk with it?_

_L: Only if you carry it on a silver platter with your wonderful hands._

_B: Ah! Nice reply!_

_S: …sniff._

Louise didn't budge until Arty began caressing her hair, and even then, she simply held onto one of his arms, and muttered:

"There are some things I need to tell you Arty, and it might take a while."

The Wizard nodded, before sitting down on the bed, Louise sat next to him, and began explaining everything that had happened, not leaving anything behind. She spoke for hours, making sure to recall every little detail, even being helped by Basileus and Sfor, she went as far as explaining to him that yes, she knew he had bargained her protection in exchange for the lives of the nobles of Albion, and that Queen Henrietta was still in mourning, and knew not what to do.

Arty nodded with a sad smile, "Maybe I'll have to speak to her soon then."

"She's probably going to punish you, even challenge you to a duel by using her champion." Louise replied, not uneasy as she had no doubts nobody could stand up to Arty in a fight.

"I see…you aren't angry about what I did?" he asked, perplexed.

"No, you did what you thought was best, as always." As the pink-haired girl replied slowly shaking her head, she whispered once more.

"I just hope next time, you'll tell me before hand."

"I promise I will," Arty replied nodding, before standing back up, "now however, we'll go and fix Tiffania on the throne of Albion, since we have little time, from what I heard, about the recent changes."

As he said that, Louise muttered:  
"She's just a girl, Arty; you can't expect her to become a queen in so little time."

"Then Mathilda can act as a regent until she's of age."

"A former thief as a regent for a country as big as Albion?" Louise queried back, raising an eyebrow puzzled.

"Trust me, I can make it work." He smiled back at her, and Louise shook her head sighing.

"Let's go then. I know it is useless trying to convince you otherwise."

As they walked toward the door, and opened it, Charlotte literally jumped to hug Arty too, as Kirche stared with a strange smile at Arty, they had been listening for a good while, daring not to interrupt or jump in, and since the story was interesting, it didn't matter.

Charlotte didn't care at all about wherever Arty had sold the Albion loyalist for Louise's safeguard, in her eyes, it simply meant he was a great friend, who'd do anything to protect those near to them, even dirty his hands, like she too had done with her mother. On Kirche's case, she was from Germania, and since there was the chatter that the queen had dropped the marriage proposal with the emperor due to a *theoretical* relationship with prince Tudor Wales, there wasn't a problem, and she even was a bit smirking at the thought of having done payback for such an affront to her country's leader. Still, the thought of him actually killing someone, especially an entire castle of Loyalists knights and the prince himself, made her shiver inside. He was so damn strong? She didn't know if he would react to her advances with play once more, or by blasting her off the room. So she simply watched as Tabitha hugged the man hard, and earning herself a scowl from Louise who still didn't say anything.

"Somebody else missed me, it seems." Arty replied, hugging back Charlotte and gently caressing her hair.

"I knew you were still alive." She muttered, her face now staring at Arty's, "I had wanted to speak to Louise about trying the summon familiar once more, but she beat me to it, I suppose." Watery eyes and all, she looked as cute as a child who gently insists for a candy or a sweet.

_S: If WE had disappeared we wouldn't get all this hugs by returning, would we?_

_L: Hell no, I'd probably dance five days straight._

_B: Oh the irony…_

_L: What?_

_S: Liches and demiliches cannot be destroyed until their phylactery *is*, and even then, you'd have to destroy us too._

_L: Phylactery?_

_B: The skull and the small box._

_L: OH._

Louise thus recalled, the box that had been carefully inscribed by Artos, the one under the immobile skull during the summoning, those were phylacteries!

_L: so that makes you immortal?_

_B: Well, actually we can be destroyed, but we reform and go running up and about in nearly a week._

_L: I see._

"I see, well then, I should thank you none the less for having trusted my incredible surviving instincts." Arty replied with a chuckle, breaking the hug and scratching the back of his neck.

"So, Louise already informed of how things changed during my absence and…"

"If you want to make Tiffania Queen of Albion, I'm in." Charlotte said, nodding, "The house of Gallia owes you everything, Arty."

"Well, the Zerbst's family could pull some pressure on the Emperor's court, if they had a firsthand sight of your powers…which they clearly had, as your ability of conjuring a giant dragon, and destroying the masts and sails of the enemy ship in one blow was noted by the entire Germanians forces, which would ease things up." Kirche said placing a hand near her chin and making a sort of strange laughter.

"If I talk to mother, I'm sure she'll help convince the other nobles, and the Queen was fine with Tiffania as a queen of Albion, so…"

"I see, I had actually planned on doing it the direct way...but it could work this way too." Arty replied with a chuckle, which sent the room into a perplexed gaze towards him.

"What would your direct way be?" Kirche asked.

"Well…I charge straight in Albion armed with my wonderful smile and convince the few nobles remaining there that Tiffania is the rightful heir." Nodding at that, he got a set of *are you kidding us* looks that made him nervously laugh for a bit.

"Well, no matter, right now we need to tell the Headmaster first, then I'm sure you'd like to speak with Mathilda, and then there's the matter of the Queen…" as Louise said that, Arty chuckled.

"No problems on that matter, Louise, though I'll need to do something beforehand, if you don't mind coming with me for a couple of minutes?" as he said that, Louise stared puzzled at the Wizard, but then nodded.

"Good!" holding her by the waist he teleported away from the room, leaving Tabitha and Kirche to stare at each other, shrugging.

***Albion's plains-Near Rosais***

Arty stared at the wheat being blown to the side by the wind, as the sun in Albion had already set; the night was slowly conquering the last remnants of light still there. Louise stood near to him, slightly cold by the abrupt change of weather that in Albion was colder, and stared at the Wizard who was beginning to trace a strange circle with glyphs and runes on the ground.

_S: Girl, you should keep an eye out, and protect him while he writes it down._

_L: While he writes down what?_

_B: It's a circle of summoning, that's what it is, so…it's bound to attract attentions._

_S: Unwanted attentions._

_L: What is he going to summon?_

_B: I've got a clue._

_S: And I've got two._

_L: You mind telling me?_

_S: Why? It's going to be a surprise. By the way, they're coming._

_B: At your five!_

_L: Five?_

_B: BEHIND YOU TO THE RIGHT._

Louise spun around quickly, wand raised, as she saw another one of those *concordant killers* staring at her with a gaze of hate, raising his sword, but not directly charging in. Instead, as his dusk wings opened wide, he circled his sword, and from his sides appeared more of them.

One had been a trouble, since she wasn't alone, and it had been a very favorable situation, however now, those were…

"Six…seven…"

_S: eleven: more are hidden from view and are slowly moving towards you. _

_L: WHAT!_

_B: Keep your cool, and speak. Take time, they won't attack immediately Arty, as he's got a never ending aura of good around him, and they are tasked with killing evil, still, be quick._

"What do you want!" she screeched, staring at the fiery-red skinned monsters.

"Revenge for the fallen." The *chief* of them replied, pointing his sword at the girl, "you who have killed one of our kin, prepare yourself for death." As he finished speaking, Louise kneeled down, as above her one of the Concordants had charged straight ahead, fury in his eyes, as she rolled to the side, another one dropped down the sword in a slash that missed the young pink-haired girl, who began running towards the chief.

"Honor-less scum! Fight me to a…" As she scrambled to the left, she avoided another one, who gritted his teethes, at such a display of agility, "A DUEL!" she yelled as she recoiled backwards after a swift halt, just two inches more, and a sword would have cut her face in half.

They were all angered at being fooled by a small girl, actually, and stared at each other, then back to the their *chief*. Louise took that moment to catch up breath, as the winged man pondered.

"No." as soon as he said that, Louise screamed, jumping forward, and scraping her knees in the process, but avoiding the Concordant who had tried to pierce her in the back.

She swiftly rolled to the left side, until she was back on her feet, grinning:

"Is that the best…" as she muttered that, a blow took her to the side, sending her rolling down, blood coming out from the side of her mouth, as she wobbled back on her feet, she stared at the Concordant who had used a hand instead of the sword.

"Now we understand. You use magic to detect our swords movement...that takes skill," the one who had hit her said, looking at his hand, and then grinning. The next moment, small flashes of light were seen, as every one of the Concordants made their sword disappear.

_S: Oh please, you're making me blush!_

_B: …we are screwed._

_S: Think positive, they're going to beat you to death, it might take time!_

_L: …fuck._

As the first one of them charged straight in, fist clenched and a wicked grin in his face, it soon turned to despair, as a giant black-clawed hand grabbed him and pulled him backwards, sending him to crash against the ground, far backwards. The others soon turned their sight back on the Wizard they had ignored, because he was a good being, and hadn't tried to attack them…that, that precise line of thoughts, proved their downfall. As Arty smiling as widely as he could, opened up wide his arms, as the summoning completed and the portal opened up.

From it, the first thing that had emerged had been an enormous skeleton, whose bones were charred black, and whose claws seemed to have been reinforced with steel frames. It also was the one who had thrown with unearthly strength the concordant killer backwards.

"The chosen of Orcus, how I like it when Demons answer your call with glee." As Arty said that, with a wide smile, Louise saw. Louise actually saw his smile, and it wasn't Arty's smile, it wasn't the smile of the wizard. It wasn't the smile of her friend. It was…

_B&S: I HATE THAT BITCH._

_L: Olidammara…_

And with a gleeful sent kiss to Louise, who had fallen to her knees, the laughing thief departed, jumping into the shadows.

_S: start moving! _

_L: Why? It's no use._

_B: I don't care, just start moving! You need to get out of here!_

_L: It's all over, isn't it? Arty is really dead._

_S: that was a fifty-fifty, it doesn't matter; you need to move! _

_L: What use is it? I'm being used by the gods, I get lied to, there's no one I can trust, no one and nothing._

_B: Louise! I am here as is Sfor, but if you don't move, when they'll finish fighting each other, they'll come for you! Concordant killers usually are cowards, and they retreat when things turn into a mess! SO GET MOVING._

Louise stood up with difficulty, no more tears she had to cry, as she felt just so much empty that even the void itself seemed filled with something, so she began running, with no precise destination in mind, just to get away from the battlefield that had demons, from the weakest Dretches to the highest ranked Glabrezu, Hezrou and Vrocks, fight against the fiercest killers hired usually by the gods themselves.

The wheat field turned to charred ground, and dead rotting corpses, in the blink of an eye, and the corpses still stood back up, as Orcus, demon god of undeath, always expected more than just a life of servitude.

The Concordant killers fought with wards, power words, and their swords slashed and tore at the Demons, but there was no end to them, the portal hadn't been placed to make only one or two pass through, it had been a determined tear into another plane, a tunnel, that kept on growing the more the time passed, letting through bigger and bigger demons, until a Marilith managed to slither through, soon followed by a Balor. At that point, the remaining Concordant Killers fled the scene, traslating away: they stood no chance, and had already lost enough of their own kind. This plane could rot and die for all they cared about.

The Balor stood there, surveying the scene, and then he sniffed the air around him.

"Smells of nothing." He muttered, as the Marilith moved closer to him, and bowed her head in reverence, it kept on speaking:

"Smells of dead and blood, over there." As he pointed towards a specific direction, the Marilith obeyed. While Louise had been running into the forest, much to her luck, it seemed, the demon army was instead moving towards the city of Rosais, who had been the recent *dilly-dallying* spot of the Concordant killers till then, and that was thus filled with dead bodies, slaughtered bodies or still alive survivors, who had gone mad, if not outright insane.

Louise on the other hand had already passed over that point, to call her broken would be to call a white surface black, as she was way beyond any and all sort of repair.

Why was life so unfair? She had been happy everything was going back to normality, surely Arty would have solved everything, and everyone would have been happy once more, instead she had been conned, Arty was probably dead, and she felt she could no longer go on like that. She wasn't even in Tristain anymore, she was in Albion, no ships leaving, no ships arriving, she was lost in there, even if Tabitha and Kirche came, they'd probably die too. There was nothing she could do now, except run through the forest, her dress in tatters, her wand held strongly. Where could she go? Where?

***Tristain's royal palace- Five days later***

"Your majesty, there is an ambassador from Germania who wishes to speak with you," Cardinal Mazarin said, after having knocked slightly on the door of the Queen, albeit the late hour, it was urgent enough to warrant the queen's presence.

"I don't want to." The reply came from a drunken voice inside, and the Cardinal sighed as he opened the door, to reveal the Queen drunk as drunk could be, five bottles of wine lay empty on the floor, a sixth half-filled or half-empty, depending on the mood of the viewer, and she was extremely red on her face, her eyes bagged by the lack of sleep, and her hair ruffled and likely left unkempt for a long time.

A set of letters had been left, opened, on her table, some came from the royal academy, others came from various nobles who had taken part in the war, others still were for debt and the likes, and she, simply, couldn't answer any of them like she wanted to, too taken by the loss of Wales to an *experiment*, and at the thought of her beloved treated like a test subject, she cringed once more.

"It is urgent, your majesty, really," the Cardinal insisted, but all he got back was a furious gaze.

"I don't CARE! Wales is dead, Louise has disappeared together with Arty, the nobles want the money and the honor and the land, Albion's contact is dead, and there is NOTHING I care for left in this world. So WHY should I receive the Germanian ambassador, Cardinal? Why!"

"Because Germania…has declared war on us, your majesty." The Cardinal muttered staring at the Queen, who, hearing the news, whispered:

"Fine, I don't care anymore, you take the regency Cardinal, have brought to me all the wine in the cellars and let me drink till I die." She muttered back.

"But your mother is…" as the Cardinal was about to say something, the Queen looked at him with a horrible and killer intense gaze.

"DO AS I TELL YOU."

"Yes, your majesty." And with a bow, the Cardinal left, closing the door behind him, then, he looked at the captain of the musketeer's guard, who had stood outside the door all this time.

"Bring her wine…but mix into it some heavy sedative…I will not have the Queen kill herself, traitorous or not, it's the only way." He whispered to Agnes, who nodded.

"Yes, Sir."

As the woman left, the Cardinal went back to meet with the ambassador, and as he sat down on the regent's throne, a smaller one on a lower step than that of the actual Queen's one, he gestured to the ambassador, a Germanian man with bright red hair and tanned skin, with hazel eyes, to speak.

"The Queen has a chance to mend her ways by accepting the proposal to marry the Emperor as his second wife and to accept…"

"Second wife? Who's the first?" the Cardinal asked shocked.

"It is still to be seen wherever the Gallian princess would accept or not his hand, and thus…"

"Wait." The Cardinal brought a hand to his temple, to massage it.

"You're telling me the Emperor of Germania has asked for the hand of the princess of Gallia, and has basically threatened us for having our queen as his concubine?" there was rage in his voice, as the ambassador, actually, coughed.

"In Germania there is no problem in having more than one wife, as long as there is the money to sustain everyone's needs, as such, the Emperor may marry how many women he desires, and she wouldn't be a concubine, but his second wife, there is a clear…"

"She'd be his legal mistress." The Cardinal snapped short.

"No! I mean, she would be a queen of Germania herself and…"

"And her majesty's power would turn out to be second to that of the first wife and of the king."

"It is the law of…"

"Ambassador, you may leave: you are lucky enough we respect the safeguard of diplomatic envoys, but we will not do so again if such preposterous threats are brought to us once more. Leave and tell your emperor that he can go and get impaled by a dragon." As the Cardinal said that, the ambassador paled and left in a hurry, the room falling into an awry silence.

The cardinal gestured to a guard, ordering.

"Call for General Gramont and De Poitiers, saddening as it seems, there is another war brewing up."

As the guard nodded, and left, a slow whisper hummed closer to the cardinal's ears.

"You could do so much more." The whisper said.

"I could do much more." The Cardinal muttered.

"You could prove your worth to the nobles…" the whisper added.

"Yes, I could prove my worth to the nobles, but how?" the Cardinal muttered.

"Show them you can give them what they want…land, titles, prizes, sell everything in the palace, and grant them everything they desire…"

"Yes…I could do that." The Cardinal replied, as he watched silently the hall, which seemed to have gone a bit brighter.

"You might become King…and not…just a regent." The whisper added carefully, to which the Cardinal nodded in silence, it was a wicked and traitorous thought, likewise the order to drug the queen to sleep. Still he had to, it was the good of the crown, and if nobody else wanted to, then he had to take upon himself such hard task!

As the envoy of Vecna, god of secrets, silently disappeared, having successfully completed his task of suggesting the correct path to take, the Cardinal was more and more convinced that yes, he had to take upon himself the mantle of protector of Tristain.

General de Gramont and De Poitiers arrived in the following three hours, long enough of a time for the Cardinal to come up with suitable plans to overthrow the Queen, and with the war, all he had to do was make sure those who'd keep their loyalties to her, such as the La Vallière family, were far off in the midst of the battle.

"Cardinal, what is the meaning of this? Another war in such short notice?" De Poitiers asked.

"I'm afraid so, Marquis de Poitiers, Germania has threatened us that, unless we deliver the Queen to their emperor as a mistress, they will declare war on us."

"That's preposterous! Has Albrecht gone mad!" General de Gramont muttered, putting his hands on his nearly bald head, and muttering curses.

"We need to prepare the troops once more." As the Cardinal said that, De Poitiers paled.

"That…might be a problem," as he was hand gestured to proceed speaking, the general said, "the problem is that while us Nobles perfectly understand the need for war on a basis of honor, the commoners need money and food, and if they are enrolled once more in the army, they won't be able to tend to the fields: we risk a famine if this keeps up."

"So does Germania then, still, why would they press on?" as the Cardinal asked that, Gramont took the word:  
"Germania has far more territories, and fare more people, furthermore, since they are so numerous, they can easily tend to the fields and still have an army, if we add to that that they did not send the entire bulk of their forces to war in Albion, then you may realize that we might, actually, be in for a tough fight."

"I need a plan to win this war, not a plan to fail it." Mazarin snapped back at the two, who stared at each other.

"Well, we could ask for Romalia to intervene and try and pacify the emperor for a while, or excommunicate him for having attacked another member of the *Holy alliance*. We could also ask for Gallia's help, and we could gently invite Gallia's princess to our castle." As De Poitiers said that, the Cardinal raised an eyebrow.

"Are you suggesting we take the princess of Gallia as a political hostage?"

"Who? Me? Never! It's the regent that should decide such actions, if the queen cannot."

The cardinal growled, yet said nothing.

"It's a nice idea." There came the whisper once more.

"Yes, it could work," The Cardinal said, with a nod, "have her come with a letter that states that her majesty wishes to speak with them, so they won't be on their guards, and then at the right moment capture her familiar, and then capture the girl."

"It will be done, Cardinal." As De Poitiers excused himself, Gramont had a distasteful look on his face, as he stared back at Mazarin.

"Really? Such underhanded trickery? We shouldn't reduce ourselves to…"

"As long as it works, general de Gramont, all is fair in war." The Cardinal replied to him, bitterly.

The man excused himself swiftly afterwards, there was something in the cardinal eyes, something he didn't at all like to see.

The Cardinal's thoughts went to the special prisoner in the palace's dungeons, the Albion's prisoner, the *heretic* that had been brought back from the floating continent alive, yet the young girl had remained catatonic, and asleep, like her mind wasn't at all there, the Cardinal mused over what to do with her, since torture would prove ineffective with a basically unresponsive body. He resolved to wait, and, worst to worst, she'd die of hunger or thirst sooner or later, since she wasn't able to eat or drink.

***Albion's Westwood village***

Louise was lucky that day: she had managed to find some bread crumbs, left behind from the previous owner of the house. She gone on far too long on nearly-charred game, and some bread wasn't at all bad to eat, even if stale and all. She had to thank her friends if she was still alive, thankfully the use of magic missiles could double as effective hunting ammo. All she had to do was point and shoot, and the missiles would hit the prey swiftly and mercilessly.

Then, to cook them, she used a controlled Burning hand spell, that Basileus and Sfor had taught her. She had enormous bags under eyes, because, until she had reached the village, after three days lost in the forest, she had slept very little, to avoid the nightmares that had begun plaguing her mind, sometimes even during the day. She was being called a failure and an idiot, again, by Arty himself, who kept on rambling how he had died because of her, and how she had been conned because of her. Then sometimes it was her mother who together with father and her sisters threw her out of the family and on the streets, where she was trampled upon by everyone else. Still, her friends kept her safe, and helped her through the darkest times.

_L: So lucky! I got myself some bread with the charred rabbit! You think I can make a stew out of it?_

_S: I suppose you could, it would still taste horrible though._

_L: Maybe I should take some rain water, boil it and throw the charred rabbit and the bread inside?_

_B: That surely wouldn't produce a soup, Louise._

_L: Oh, yeah. I'm ignorant on how to make soup. How do I make soup?_

_S: Well…you take vegetables._

_L: Grass is fine?_

_B: No Louise, things like carrots, salad, potatoes are fine._

_L: There's nothing like that in the village._

_S: Afraid so. You'll have to go with stale bread and charred rabbit then._

_L: Oh well, can't complain._

As she thought that, she grabbed ahold of a rabbit's leg, and tearing it clear from the burned thing began eating it, spitting out the fur, and the bones.

Then, she started to grind with her teethes on the bread, that seemed as hard as a rock, but still she persevered, even licking it, until she finally managed to gulp it down.

That's when she heard some noise coming from the edge of the house she was in.

She carefully got to her knees, instead of the sitting position she was in while eating her meager breakfast/lunch, and wand raised, she moved carefully towards the source of the noise, slowly looking outside, she realized it was some of the kids that Tiffania used to care about. It seemed like they too had been a bit scrawny and hungry, and they were in the process of scavenging around the garden in the back, to no avail, as when she had arrived first, it had already been picked up clean.

"I'm hungry brother." The smaller of the two whined to the other. Why was he whining? Didn't he know that whining didn't solve things?

"I'm hungry too, but there's nothing left to eat." The older one whined too. Why were they whining? Those damn kids wanted her food that was it! It was clear, they were here to steal from her, and she had to stop them!

_L: Pesky thieves! I'll teach them, just look at how good I am now._

_B: Louise, no, there's really no need to…_

_S: let her do it, it's good to vent out stress._

It was quick, the two boys heard someone chanting, and the next moment two darts of force struck them straight through the neck, killing them in the process and through the blood loss.

Louise moved towards their corpses, inspecting them for food that they, actually, didn't have. Until she looked into the elder's one's pocket, and found a piece of cheese.

"Whiner and even a liar, rotten scum." She muttered, spitting on the corpse, and holding tightly unto the cheese piece, before making her way back into the house.

_B: The corpses are going to rot soon enough, even though the weather is getting colder, they might still attract beasts._

_L: You're right as always Basileus! I'm such a stupid girl, I should have thought about that sooner!_

Thinking that, Louise moved back to the two corpses, and started dragging them towards the nearby forest. Where she dumped them without ceremony with the rest of the scavengers that had come before them.

"Still no wolves…I'd like to eat wolf stew one day." She muttered, leaving the bodies there and moving back to the village, and to the small creaky house she used as a base of operation for sleeping and learning magic.

_S: Careful what you wish for, you might attract Worgs_

_L: What are worgs? _

_B: A worg is a more ferocious than normal wolf, enhanced thanks to arcane energies, and cunning as a human if not more._

_L: Do they taste good?  
S: I suppose they are edible, if cooked._

_L: Good to know!_

As Louise hummed a slightly happy tone, she moved towards her bedroom and, after having closed the door and laid the bed sheet under the bed, she crawled in the tiny dark space left and closed her eyes once more, for some training in her mind.

Basileus stood there, flipping a book with his rotten corpse's hand, while Sfor had been idly sitting into Void's lap, as the personification of her Void powers had decided to be called, and was being gently caressed by the Void herself, while the black hole hummed quietly in the background, held in check with relative ease.

Louise kind of wondered why she had to leave this happy and calm place and return to the day or night cycle of the real world. Here she had friends, and she was even able to hold conversations and come to know things from her Void powers, like other spells. One was illusion, that enabled her to create illusions on a very enormous scale, and another one instead was Dispel, which made her able to undo magic of any kind and form. The one she liked the most however was Accelerando that required no chanting, but a high amount of willpower, and enabled her to go ultrafast when she wanted to, furthermore, she had now two versions of the explosion spell, a more controlled one which had a lot less power, and a more powerful one, which however was not so much controllable. Void had taken a liking to Sfor, and as such, the two were nearly always together, even though the flying skull had repeatedly told her that his *lady* would always be first in his thoughts. Coming from a Demilich, and a flying skull, it was the best one could hope to achieve.

"So, for today's lesson," Basileus said, closing the book and staring at Louise, "you will learn the fourth circle. Please, do mind that the quantity of energy required is higher than that of the third and that, by unlocking it, you will be able to cast more spells of the lower spell slots, but, at the same time, bear in mind that you can *swap* the lower ones with others, so, I prepared a set of possible alternatives for your *spell load-out*" as he snapped his fingers, a set of four scrolls appeared.

"Do not worry, Sfor and I will work on altering the current ones with the new ones, were you to choose something else from what we have propos…"

"Whatever you choose is fine for me Basileus." Louise replied with a giggle.

The Void raised a puzzled eyebrow but said nothing, she had proposed one too!

"Fine then…now, the fourth circle." As he said that, he began explaining the spells of the various schools, while pointing out the importance of Locate Creature, Scrying and Greater Invisibility he also stated that, for her just tackling the circle, simpler type of spells would be best, as they would require less concentration and more pointing the fingers, and also, being a sorceress, she could only know one spell, and it would be best to be something easily useable in more than one situation.

"That is why, I will teach you to Animate Undead then, once you have mastered it, we will swap a lower slot for a Locate Object spell, and then you will start your search for onyxes that are a focal requirement to actually use said spell."

"Yes Basileus, I get it…will I be able to field an army of undead then?" Louise asked with a glint of interest.

"At your level…you might, maybe, control thirty-two weak skeletons, it's not an army, and depending on which corpses you raise they might not be at all combat-effective, but it's a good defense force, and you can place them in key points, so if they get destroyed, you'll have an early alarm system. You can also send them ahead to scout for you, but since they can't speak, you'll have to order them to come back as soon as they see a specific thing, like the enemy army to say, and then make mind calculations to determine the distance, or you can order them to destroy themselves once they reach a certain place, or in case they find a person you are looking for, thus marking its location in your brain. You will know when an undead of yours is destroyed and the general direction, and Locate Object will enable you to find its remains."

As he spoke, clearly illustrating the set of benefits it would come from having such a spell, Louise nodded, it was like having Arty alright, only this one was a bit more rotten and a bit less sympathetic, but still, it was good to have him as a friend.

After a brief moment of breathing, inhaling and exhaling, she concentrated into her soul, mentally imagining that she was carving out words and weaving spells that she too had no idea what their effects would be, she saw the thick lines of the arcane weave intertwine with weaker ones, she saw places where it had been torn and mended only recently, and others were pitch black strings stayed. She saw energy, at its highest state, that of creation, and of destruction, she gazed into the peerless abyss of knowledge and power, and she did her best, like a scavenger was, to grab any straw that wasn't knitted, and knitted it back herself, she had never been able to knit anything worthy of the title, but she was more than able to knit in there the arcane energies in her soul, and then, as she grabbed a thinner than normal line, she poured her energy into it, making it brightly shine for a moment, before pulling it closer to her, closer to her soul, and attaching it to herself. The two resonated for a brief moment, before finally a searing and all too familiar pain ran through Louise's inner core, as spells she didn't like were swapped by the will of Basileus and Sfor, with an ease that left her always astonished, it would be utterly painful were she to try it, but with them, it was just like being slightly pricked, and it never lasted much.

When she reopened her eyes, it was already night in the village. She crawled out of her hiding spot to stare out of the window at the clouds, at the moons shining brightly and utterly uncaring of the situation below them, she saw flashes of red and white at the horizon, where someone was probably fighting someone else, either it was Rosais, or it was someplace nearer. Still, it didn't matter to her, as she heard a slight and feral howl coming from the forest.

_L: Oh right! Wolves hunt also in the night! Lucky me! WOLF STEW!_

_S: Good hunting._

***Germania's border with Tristain***

"Herr Handenburg!" the salute roared through the lines of the Germanian forces that had secretly been amassed near the border with Tristain. The General sighed, after having fought together with the Tristain's forces in the quickest battle of every time, and having retreated the army when Londinium had come under attack by Brimir's revenge, now it was clear that all the emperor wanted was to look good in the eye of the church, by unleashing the entire fault of Brimir's wrath on Tristain and the *unfaithful* queen. How did the emperor ever get a hold of such information, was a mystery that no-one, not even the most skilled spies of Germania themselves, could crack. Somebody had given him the information, and even more, the letters, written by the hand of the Queen of Tristain herself. How was that even possible? Still, that wasn't the moment for doubts, in front of them stood the first obstacle to the conquest of Tristain, a key-point to the invasion's beginning, and that had to be captured at all costs: the bridge over the river Tamigius.

Conquering the bridge would have placed them at the advantage, since they wouldn't need to make a detour long weeks, and could aim directly at the heart of Tristain, the city of Tristania, in a matter of days, and not months. The Germanian forces were of three types, the tribes of the far East, that had just recently entered the ranks of the military, and that were proud cavalrymen, if a bit behind with technology, then, came the bulk of the force as the nobles of Germania each had to provide a rigorous score of trained military men, plus any they could spare from the fields. The third and final ones were the mercenaries, or the private guards of the nobles themselves, like the Luftpanzer Ritter, famous for its extremely skilled Dragoons. They had to strike fast, and they had to use overwhelming force, because word was that the founder's chosen had yet to return, and, until it did, they could try and change the facts in their favor, and later on force him to accept them as the new ruler of Tristain, especially after having broken the Queen Henrietta as the new second wife of the emperor Albrecht.

Handenburg rolled his eyes, remembering when the emperor, in his youth, had been a fine man, and now instead he was more of a round and fat pig, keen on mistresses and bastards.

Still, he ruled them all, and he was a man of the army, the emperor ordered, and he obeyed.

"The Germanian ambassador has returned." Announced a messenger, to which the general queried:

"The Zerbst first-born?"

"She's still at the academy, she refused to leave." The messenger replied.

"Smart girl. If she had, we could have bombed it from afar and razed it to the ground, now we're forced to engage in first-line combat, unless she attacks us back, which she won't do…Second Lieutenant Albert Von Riktofen, can you take the bridge?" as the general asked to the man at his side on a nearby horse, the black haired, brown eyed man who was wearing a pointed hat that ended with a metal spike looked first at the general, then at the bridge, finally, raising his wand, he nodded.

"I'll be on it." Kicking the sides of the horse, the lieutenant's horse first started a light trot that soon became a galloping, as the man in question raised his wand and began chanting.

General Handenburg watched the scene with slight interest, as soon, behind the lieutenant, a cavalry platoon swiftly followed their leader's actions.

The messenger stared in awe at the scene, and the General couldn't help but explain.

"Where the Luftpanzer Ritter holds the air, down on the god-forsaken dirt, those who fight with the same ferocity are the Pferdpanzer Ritter."

The messenger simply nodded, as the little contingent of soldiers that were usually tasked to control the bridge, were trampled or burned to oblivion by the fierce fire magic of the corps.

"The first requisite is to be at least a triangle Fire mage, to enter said corps, furthermore, they are *my* private guards." As the general chuckled at that, he added, "And Albert Von Riktofen is a square-class Fire mage to boot, a fierce soldier, and loyal to Germania and its people."

"Yes sir." The messenger replied, not knowing what else to say, as he was still waiting what message he should refer back to court.

"Oh yes, I was nearly forgetting: tell the emperor that, if Tristain can't bring back the founder's chosen in time, we'll probably be at the doorsteps of Tristania by the time you reach the palace itself." The messenger nodded, basically, it meant only one week's time, and then he swiftly went to change horses and begin his run towards Vindobona.

By the time the General began his slow descend from the hill he was nested, swiftly followed by the rest of the marching army, the bridge was littered with the charred corpses of the guards, whose only noble in charge of them had pleaded mercy and was now tied and bound in chains, on the Tristain's side of the bridge.

As Handenburg moved closer, he asked to the man in question:

"Who are you?"

"I-I am Count Mott…I was once the Royal messenger to the crown, b-but now I'm assigned here for charges that I am in no way guilty of."

"Such as?"

"Ha…harassment." As the count in question stared to the side, the general looked at his lieutenant, and said:

"Well, it seems you took no prisoners." As the count's eyes widened in shock, Albert Von Riktofen smiled with a wide grin, and from the tip of his wand a jet of basking blue flames shot forward, killing among screams the man.

"Seems like that, Mon General."

"What does it mean? Sounds Gallian."

"Oh…from where I come from, they'd call it...French, it means *my general*." as the man smiled, he mounted on his horse once more, swiftly putting himself next to Handenburg, who ordered to double the march, to reach Tristania on time.

"Tell me Albert, how's the project going along?"

"If everything works well enough, we will double Germania's productions rates and lessen the workloads in the fabrics."

"Are you sure you're not a Brimir-sent?" the general replied with a chuckle.

"I doubt it, if I actually was, there would be no wars," As the lieutenant muttered that, he stared in front of him.

"You even choose your nickname, *The Hellfire*, you told me the reason once, didn't you?"

"Yes: Fear is the strongest of weapons, using it well can solve battles without worries, without blood, without fire." As the Lieutenant replied he slightly cocked his head to the side, staring at the marching column of his own men.

"To think the ragged and dirty bundle that I found collapsed on the road to Vindobona would prove to be so acculturated…"

"You're still going to insist on that, right?" Albert actually understood where the man wanted to go and hit.

"You offend me if you think I'm still going to ask you to reconsider the marriage proposal of that charming lady Kyrie."

"Oh, then there's no need for me to be on my guard, in case someone wished to spike my drink with a love potion, and just so casually showed me a portrait of her, right?"

"Precisely," the General replied nodding strongly.

"Then there's no problem if I tell you that said portrait has already been used as firewood."

"That…obviously." The General sighed. He'd have to ask for another portrait.

"Good." As the lieutenant replied with a wide grin, he settled in a more comfortable position on his horse, and left the horse to move forward, while he gently snored.

***Tristain's magic Academy-two days later***

The carriage bearing the La Vallière crest had arrived just at the same time a messenger from Gallia had brought a letter to Charlotte, as the latter had just delivered the letter, and then dashed off to the servant quarters to await the response, the first had instead dropped three women.

The first had flowing pink hair and a gentle smile, with ample breasts, the second was flat and had blond long hair, and the third, well, the third didn't show more than thirty years, but was certainly the mother of the two before, and, since the Headmaster himself had come to greet her, it was clear she was actually the Duchess of the La Vallière. The reason why she was there was clear to the students: the disappearance of Louise, had been dully and sadly noted after two days of her and Arty's non-returning, and since Arty himself was prone to trust, it was the common thought that he had taken her somewhere for something, but still, due to both Kirche and Charlotte's insistence that it shouldn't have taken this long, more thoughts had sprouted, like forbidden love, impure relationship, or things like that.

Ms. Longueville had been the first to counter said arguments, as had both Charlotte and Kirche, once more, refused that. Guiche too, strangely, had been on the same view, so the mystery remained such, and the chatter kept on growing.

The Duchess followed the headmaster in silence, followed by her daughters, as, on the other side of the courtyard, Charlotte dropped her letter on the table's surface.

"I'm getting married," she muttered.

"To who?" Kirche asked her interest peaked at the thought of seeing her best friend's new fiancé; maybe she could snatch him away.

"Your emperor." Charlotte replied, and in that moment, something broke inside of Kirche, she shivered and then grabbed both shoulders of the blue-haired girl and yelled as high as she could:

"NO. NEVER. NEIN! NICHT!" shaking her friend back and forth, she screeched once more.

"Refuse! Tear the letter! Forget about it! Let it go! Destroy it and don't think about it! I'll…we'll hide in Romalia if need be, but you are NOT marrying him!"

"Calm down…I didn't intend to," Charlotte replied with a gasp at such a display of bluntness and utter anger from Kirche.

"You'd better not. He's a monster, a lewd man, a horrible sadistic minded person."

"Is that the rumor?" Charlotte asked back, but was surprised when Kirche shook her head.

"My cousin ended up forced to bed with him for the Jus Primae Noctis, and she simply wasn't the same afterwards, he was so cruel in a single night that she simply withered away in the following weeks. That's how horrible the man is, Charlotte."

"I…I see." As the girl nodded, she earnestly began writing a reply, but stopped to duck pushing Kirche down too, as a wind blade sliced straight where they had been moments ago.

From the window of the Headmaster, the Duchess, Karin the Heavy Wind, descended with a furious gaze.

Tabitha raised her staff, just in time to conjure an Air shield and protect herself and Kirche from an enemy's Air Hammer, which still threw them backwards and left them wobbling on their feet.

"Why are you attacking us?" Kirche yelled, wand in hand.

"What did you do to my youngest girl?" the Duchess roared, wand raised and ready to strike.

"What is she talking about?" Kirche muttered to Tabitha who realized and assumed a really displeased expression.

"Think about it: We were the only two in the room with her, when Arty *came back and stole her away for a moment* would you believe it, or you would rather think…we did something to her? Nobody else saw Arty coming back you know."

"And with Germania declaring war and the emperor asking for the Gallian's princess hand, it's clear you backstabbers acted together to take my daughter hostage! BETRAYERS!" as the Duchess ranted that, a series of air blades were swiftly casted with strength, and only Kirche's swiftness coupled with Tabitha's air shields made it possible to avoid grave wounds. Kirche actually grabbed Tabitha by the waist and started running towards the academy's room.

"You're not running away!" as she had now time to cast, the Duchess, Karin the Heavy wind, unleashed a Cutter tornado that minced anything onto its path against the two running girls. Kirche could feel it just about to slice her back, but suddenly, just as it had arrived, it disappeared.

"What?" The Duchess couldn't understand, until a bald headed man dashed into the scene, two wands in hand.

"Mordenkainen Disjunction! No matter what, it will be dispelled!" as Professor Colbert actually appeared out of nowhere, Kirche's eyes turned into heart-shaped form, as she muttered something akin to *My hero* in Germanian.

"You are…who are you? Are you perhaps one of Arty's apprentices? He spoke of having one…you're Professor Colbert, right?" as the bald man nodded in reply to the Duchess inquiry, Karin mimicked a slashing motion with her wand, which, however, was stopped by a flame snake.

"I am also known as *The Flame Snake*, so, Karin *the Heavy Wind* should we stop this pointless fight?"

"My daughter was kidnapped, and those two *must* know something!" as she yelled that, she began a chant, that continued, even though the flame snake darted at her, she was swift and trained enough to keep the casting on as she dodged its attack, that left the area around her charred and burning.

"CUTTER TORNADO" as she yelled that once more, Colbert raised the wand in his left hand, and yelled:

"DISJUNCTION!" as the tornado dispersed once more, so did, however, the flame snake.

"IT seems it works on a wide area, not caring for friend and foes alike."

"I do not wish to fight you, Duchess. Please, put down your wand, and let us talk about this."

"It's been a week since she disappeared, Flame snake. One week is enough to do horrible things to a young girl. I want to know where they brought her, and maybe, maybe I'll let them live!"

"WE DON'T KNOW!" Kirche screeched back, "It was Arty who took her and…"

"DON'T LIE! Arty would have brought her back surely!" Karin replied, dismissing the claim with a hand wave.

"Why would they lie, or better yet, why should they be lying duchess?" Colbert asked, "They value the Wizard, my professor, greatly, if they said he came back, then he did, because this happened a week ago, and a week ago, as the weeks before, no messages were sent to either miss Zerbst or miss Helene, I can guarantee that…as I was hiding in the pigeon's tower, and human messengers would have been noticed, and they weren't, while instead when four days ago a messenger arrived from Germania, asking for miss Zerbst return to her parents, it was the chatter of the servants quarters for a while too…"

"If what they say is true however…what happened to my youngest then!" as the duchess crumbled on her knees, Eleonore and Cattleya arrived on the scene, panting heavily on the run, followed by the headmaster.

"Just…what happened to her?" was the last thing the duchess muttered, before she began sobbing. A sight that left many shocked, others traumatized, and many more turning their back on the scene, to avoid seeing a mother crying, over the disappearance of her child.

***Albion-Two Days later***

"Food rations?"

_S: Check_

"Backpack?"

_B: Check_

"Army of shambling zombies?"

_S: All accounted for._

"Then we march! Off to the next Onyx deposit guys!" as Louise cheerfully said that, humming a nice tune, the zombies of farmers, of bandits, of kids, moved, following her without talking, without thinking, without problems. She was their master, and they obeyed without thought.

"Then, when I get strong enough, I'll teleport finally back home, and I'm sure everyone will be surprised!"

_S: Yeah, I suppose._

_L: What do you mean!_

_B: Tackling the fifth circle isn't as easy as tackling the fourth; you might need far more experience and power._

_S: But more than that, with, considering the *just arrived* power of the fifth circle, you'd be able to teleport till one thousand miles. _

_B: You might end up short if you don't teleport at the right time._

_L: Doesn't matter! I'm sure with you two I'll get there in no time._

_S: Yeah._

_V: Founder book and ring of water, destroyed. Good. You are…good at this._

_L: Thanks! I like you too._

_B: she…never mind. Yes, we are proud of you Louise._

_L: Oh stop it! You're making me blush._

So, the pink-haired girl kept on singing a happy tune, as she happily walked along the road towards Dartanes, the second biggest port of Albion, all the while thinking about how proud everyone was of her new…skills.

***Necros- Fourteen days Since the Ruler's reappeared***

"THE NIGHT HAS FALLEN!" the voice roared into the biggest cave ever dug under the city. As the vampires readied themselves, and the baron took his position in the flag-plane, the abominations, which wielded cannons, crafted into the skins, that also held tightly gunpowder and cannon balls, so to actually make them moving artilleries, moved into line.

The Death Knights took their positions, their leader at the head of it, swiftly, followed the necromancers, on skeleton horses, and the skeletal cavalry.

The normal skeletons, armed with claws and simple weapons, moved among the ranks to the front, as the simple zombies were behind. In a line stood the ghasts muttering foul curses to their fellow ghouls, the mummies walked, making a circle around their lord, as a newly formed banshee waited silently behind the ruler of Necros.

Bloated beings of blood and engorged flesh stood bulky and enormous at the sides of the army.

"TODAY, YOU ALL ARE ASSEMBLED!" as Artos Basileus Sfor yelled that, ghosts descended silently from the above ceiling, as shadows silently lurched along the cave walls, their red eyes glittering.

"Today is the day we fight! Today is the day we defeat the fickle gods! Today the plan comes in fruition in all its power, in all its strength, be prepared! Be prepared for the murkiest scam! For the meticulous planning! BE prepared, for everything comes to an end, everything crashes down TODAY!" and as Artos stopped talking, the enormous portal in the polished cave swiftly opened, and as a bright green light appeared, the first to pass through was Derflinger himself, inside a Steel golem, as he was the one needed to then redirect the portal to wherever Derflinger himself had ended up to.

***Sahara Desert***

The first thing Bidashal saw, appearing in the midst of the capital's street, was a shining metallic contraption.

The problem was…what followed.

**Author's notes**

**Seems like it went darker and darker, and I went *What the hell are they doing!* you know, sometime, you simply have to let the characters do what they want to do, and not try and force their hands. **

**Blinded: She doesn't know that, I had to re-read all the previous chapters, and it isn't mentioned once that she knows that Tiffania is a void mage. When she will know, it will probably be too late, considered *how broken* she is.**

**Next chapter, hell will probably break loose once more. We are going for an outstanding finish line, so, who are you betting is going to win? Will Louise return innocent? Will darkness cloud her heart? Will Germania steam roll everyone? Will the elves hold on the undead? Who knows! BTW I started another fanfic, (albeit on my profile I stated I wouldn't do more than one at the time) out of sheer and morbid will to harm myself. **

**Once more, thanks for any review you fling my way.**

**Final notes:**

**When Louise speaks in her mind to the B&S, it's not an author's mistake, she actually lied somewhere in her speech, it's up to the Detective Conan reader to understand what. (Or you can wait the next chapters, as always).**


	14. Chapter 14: Convergence of Fates

**Battles. This chapter has lots of battles. Really. Lots.**

Chapter Fourteen

Chaos. Chaos is such a fickle thing, like Death, like Famine, like War. The only problem is that Chaos is the beginning and the end of everything. The planes were forged from the Chaos attempt at generating an oxymoron known as controlled chaos, which resulted in Order. Order broke free from Chaos, and molded the primal strength itself into the first entities, which still, however, had no idea how to go about, so each of them began spurning out ideas, like *rocks* or *dirt* or *trees* like kids deciding what their imaginary friends are going to be like. Some created the worlds, the wheels, the cogs, others decided to protect the rules with iron fist, other yet held a more relaxed attitude, but still played with the laws of the game, because otherwise, it would be no fun.

So was the Prime Plane born, so was the Negative and Positive plane, so was the Elemental planes, and the planes that held as resident every divinity and their followers, because, after all, you can play just so many games only with a selected few. Those who created other races, soon became more powerful, but the more they got entangled by the Laws of Order, the more they realized that their very own freedom was getting limited. By abiding to the laws, they weakened themselves. By being forced by their very same laws, they had no choice, but to obey the rules, and never, ever, directly intervene in a plane, instead sending their avatars, their followers, their faithful. But today they weren't going on their planes: they were going on another dimension's plane that soon would merge with their own.

In that place, they could manifest themselves without infringing on any law at all. Still, someone had to go and be the party breaker: Mechanus, Boccob, Yondalla and Garl had been dead-set on acting as neutral referees, so that the gods wouldn't go all-out and maintain a sort of decorum, furthermore, if they actually did go all out, they might just as well trash the world and begin anew. So they could only appear for a limited time-frame, of five minutes, five minutes that each god had to do at the same time, and them, knowing full well when the pivotal point was going to happen, all eagerly choose it. After that chosen time, however, their vision of the future disappeared, as being that a focal, and important point that would determine the fate of the plane, nobody would be granted permission to cheat, but many did know the outcome: in those five minutes, they would either destroy all opposition to them, or they would lose the chance, the only chance, to conquer the plane.

So, where does Chaos come in? Chaos, as you can see, is the strongest power of them all: it is not good, nor evil, it has no justice or injustice, it only holds to a single yet irrefutable principle. Said principle being something extremely simple but at the same time utterly impossible for a mortal mind to achieve in its complete complexity: Everything *must* keep on changing. Nothing must remain the same, ever, and with that, Chaos' true power was that on absolutely anything and everything, and, at the same time, on nothing, because he couldn't attack the laws of Order directly, so he had to use someone else. Someone…who would follow *some* rules, but not so many, and that would be easy to bring back to Chaos once their work done. That is why Demons were created.

The Gods countered them with the Solars, and the Chaos countered with the Devils, then the Gods countered with the Eladrin, and finally they reached a stalemate, where the Justicars were born. The result was more Chaos, which still strengthened the primal power. In the end, Chaos would win. It always won, for every death or for every life: everything that changed was a victory on its own. Nobody was free from change, thus everyone was a slave of chaos.

Yet, he couldn't act directly, he couldn't speak directly, he couldn't do a single thing directly, he who could create everything, couldn't do a single thing without using someone else. He was the strongest idea, yet also the weakest.

When that plane however set itself on the route of collision, Chaos saw an opportunity, an opportunity too good to pass on, but Order blocked him, as always the two fought battles that raged so strong and on such a wide spectrum that it was impossible for anyone to see or understand, as a mobbed elderly man was helped by the law, Order was winning, but as a band of robbers killed a family, Chaos counter-attacked, as a leaf fell from a tree Chaos felt stronger, but as a mountain stood tall no matter what erosion was set against her, Order felt proud.

In the end, they arranged themselves for another set of rules, and decided to let casualty handle it, circumstance, fate, the flip of the coin, and, as always, that was a sign that Chaos had won once more.

***Sahara Desert – Elven Capital – Nephthys ***

The surprise attack had taken a toll in the cities' ancient artisan's quarters, as the guards were little in that area, since there wasn't a need to guard armors and weapons of warfare meant for their ships, their fleets or their animals, among the elves their own magic was more than sufficient a weapon for anything, if only they had thought that even magic had its limits. Especially when some undead were simply ethereal.

First, came Derflinger, as a golem of steel, even if he was a hundred percent adamantine, with his blade erupting at the place of his right hand, while the core of his powers stood straight in the center of his adamantine body, and small red flickers marked the spots were his eyes had been placed, to allow him three-hundred-sixty degrees of vision. On his own, normally, he wouldn't have been able to do nothing, but, after a nice Analyze Dweomer, it had come to the attention of Artos that indeed, he could be used most efficiently. So, with full knowledge of his capacities, the golem was basically a black hole for absorbing magic, of any kind and species, as long as its blade stood between the spell and his body. Bidashal had watched the metallic contraption move into the streets, yelling, but as he had prepared himself to descend and fight the strange Iron spirit, he jerked backwards in surprise, as what looked like a wall of dark shadows and pale and spectral ghosts moved like a wave and swept across the roads, passing through the quickly raised stone walls with ease, and living behind weakened and fallen on her feet civilians and guardsmen. The capital was under attack, the elders were at risk and the enemy didn't discriminate, furthermore, the Shaitan Gate had strangely begun flickering with activity, months before, and the human countries had, according to their spies, begun another set of ravaging wars.

This was bad under all terms of the word, as it all seemed orchestrated to maximize the damage.

Still, Bidashal had to do what he could, and he ordered the only thing he could do at the moment:

"Get everyone who can fight on the streets, move all the civilians to the fleets and warn the elves in the desert and in the other city that the capital has fallen! We must retreat!"

The elven guard nodded, before dashing outside, as instead the elven researcher looked at the shadows moving along the street, as he felt the cries of his people who had fallen downwards, like if all strength had been sucked from their limbs. Then, he shivered, as monsters the like of which he had never come across moved, their skin purplish and rotten, some with a horrid stench, bones erupting from their broken skin, yet they moved with uncanny speed, they were dead corpses, yet they moved.

He turned to leave, just to see his road blocked by what seemed like a completely bandaged man, who was strangling the guard that had tried to defend herself, and with a sickening crunch, the guard lay on the floor lifeless.

"What monster could birth such horrid creatures?" Bidashal muttered as the air condensed into sickles that tore through the bandaged creature, and yet, no blood came out, as the monster charged, so did Bidashal jump backwards, against the class, and into the air of the night.

The elf had thought of flying upwards, as many other elves had obviously thought about, yet, they were falling down from the sky like dead birds, crashing on the ground in red explosions, as up above strange noises, like thunder, boomed all around them.

He looked at a loud flash on one side of the city, and muttered a prayer to the spirits, because that was where the docks were.

Still, explosions could be heard thorough the city, as the elves weren't second to none and, after the initial shock, they had begun fighting back with all their might. Yet, the elven researcher stopped in mid-air, as an oppressive aura came against him, making him gasp in fear as he slowly turned around, to face another flying man, clad in green and black robes, and staring at him, with a kind smile, and bright red hair, his eyes, green as the most luscious grass, stared at him, he was such a sign of beauty, and yet, also such a sign of wickedness and fear, as he raised a hand, and, behind him, floating ghosts neared Bidashal, who could only fly backwards, as he muttered prayers to the spirits of fire, and then, flexing his indexes forward, a gush of flames which turned into a tornado darted forward, dispersing some of the ghosts into thin air, but leaving many other unscathed, like the fire didn't even harm them.

The man moved another hand, like he was a maestro of an orchestra, and from down below, skeletal musketeers shot forward their bullets, that stopped when they impacted against the Counter magic he had on himself.

The man grinned, as next to him, a particularly big shadow, with fierce red eyes, appeared, and dashed forward, the ghosts retreating from the scene, as they left the place to the boss of the shadows.

"Hope is fickle." The shadow sneered as it started circling around the elf.

"The Ruler finds you interesting." It added, with a chuckle.

"So the Ruler will get you." It snorted, as an evil grin took a strange appearance on the shadow's face.

"Why are you doing this, what is the meaning behind your actions? You do not look like crusaders!" as Bidashal angrily retorted, the shadow threw itself at the elf, but the elf quickly fell downwards, letting gravity accelerate his flight speed, the shadow swiftly on his tracks, they darted through the hallways, filled with the crying and weakened elves, with the still fighting soldiers, who, seeing Bidashal flee, did their best to stall the creature, that however seemed to take no notice of the attacks against her.

The researcher already had a back-up plan: all he needed was to get to the dragoons, and hope that whatever was shooting down the elves up in the skies wasn't as fast as them too. An explosion and a scatter of debris to his right made him crash against a wooden wall and topple inside a building, the shadow following behind him, but stopping on her tracks.

Bidashal had entered one of the sanctuaries dedicated to the water spirits, and the clear and crystalline water was right now reaching his ankles, the researcher wasn't a fool and stared at the shadow, which was careful to stay out of the boundaries of the water, while staring at the elf with unrelenting hate.

"You don't like water?" he asked.

"Why should I tell you?" the shadow muttered back, before sending a high pierced shriek, that sent Bidashal on the run, without a doubt, it had called for reinforcements, reinforcements that actually could reach him, so, as he swiftly emptied a nearby jug of its offering and filled it with the water, he started his flight once more, towards the other side of the building, and, once outside, he was once more swiftly tailed by the shadow.

"Runs the mice from the kitten, runs the worm from the bird." The shadow chanted, as it began laughing, like it was toying with the elf.

On the other side of the city, a group of elven guards was holding up the stone walls with all the willpower they could muster from the spirits, as they had been together when the attack had come, they had managed to form their usual offensive formation, a rectangular form from which they had spewed a continuous cone of fire, effectively managing, in the end, to prevent the ghosts and the shadows from getting too close.

Still, the artillery on the abominations had begun bombarding at their location, and some had switched to raising stone walls, while a couple had started opening a hole in the walls of the city, to let the few survivor pass through. Sure, the thought of running at night in the desert wasn't good, but it was better than becoming food for those walking corpses.

One the guards clenched her right fist, sending a hail of stones to crash against a group of skeletons, battering the lot of them and stalling the enemies long enough for another guard to finish contracting with the wind, that sent strong blasts of air against the already weakened skeletons, crushing them into dust.

"They just keep coming!" one of the guards yelled, before a deafening roar made them stare in shock as a building collapsed onto itself, and then, the Death wings were on them.

High above, Baron Sinfer Von Tereskian began laughing as he pulled the cloche upwards, making a complete over flip and becoming the assaulter of a group of elven dragoons, whereas minutes before he was being, not so easily, pursued. The flying butcher spit forward its hail of bullets, that exploded in smaller fragments once they reached a specific range, the effect of the Splitting magic that worked on the arrows, seemed to apply also on the bullets. So, from one, two, from two, four and from four, came sixteen bullets.

The bullets pierced through the scales of the Dragoon, but not through the counter of the elven magic, and tore apart the mounts of the guards who, losing concentration due to the sudden feeling of falling, dropped their shields and were mercilessly filled with lead.

"Fine, just don't look down, don't look down and everything is going to be fine." The Baron muttered to himself, while holding tightly onto a recently discovered item called *parachute* that had been found on the rear of the original plane, and that had become the new form of safeguard for the vampire in question. As he took a turn left, to circle the city once more, and provide assistance where it was needed, he couldn't help but call on the radio the rest of his team.

"Death Wing chief, check time."

"Alpha Wing all check"

"Beta Wing all check"

"Gamma Wing all check."

The reply then came as a buzz from the mechanical contraption called *radio*.

"Alpha Wing, all accounted for, low on fuel, permission to disengage and land?"

"Beta Wing, low on ammo, lost contact with Beta Wing five, permission to look for?"

"Gamma Wing, all accounted for, all is fine."

"Alpha Wing, permission negated. Protect Beta Wing while it lands. Beta Wing, land and search, Gamma Wing, provide areal protection. Once Beta has landed, Alpha may land, till then, Gamma Wing you're in charge of the skies. If I see a frigging thing flying without the Necros banner, you're getting turned to ash in the morning sun!"

"Yes sir!"

As the baron got distracted by the talk, he didn't manage in time to avoid getting hit by a set of wind blades that neatly cut off his right wing, and sent the plane downwards.

"Necros help me!" the baron muttered as he pulled the handle that opened the cockpit with a loud bang, sending the vampire to fly up in the air as the seat ejected him. Then, he realized to his dismay that he hadn't taken a hold of the parachute, since he had used the very same hand for the handle. As he stared at the ground, so much down below, he began falling.

"I'm too young and powerful to die!" he screeched, as he flailed his arms in a desperate attempt to make more air resistance.

"FOR THE LOVE OF ME; YOU CAN BECOME A BAT!" Artos yelled watching at the scene with an utterly angered expression.

"Oh, right." The baron muttered, as he assumed the form of said animal, and flew swiftly close to the ruler himself.

"Really, just remind me why I cope with you, Sinfer." Artos muttered shaking his head and putting his right hand to his forehead, to massage his temples.

"Because I'm your most faithful servant?" he hinted, with a bit of hope.

"You destroyed the previous banshee." Artos replied.

"She started it! She literally tore to shred my precious Virgin Blood Red curtains!" the bat screeched back.

"So you thought of destroying one most prized undead? You realize that I had to create another one and that took time, yes? Time and over five-hundred golden coins in Onyxes to be more precise."

"I paid it back ten-fold!"

"That is why I did not turn you to ash you, that, and the fact that you are *one* of the best at using the flying butchers."

"Thank you my lord." As the bat said that, it landed down on the road, and assumed his humanoid form, taking out from its scabbard a blue-colored blade, made of cold-iron.

"Begin the procedure Baron, the strong we mold, the weak…"

"We cull," and, having said that, the baron began slashing just so slightly at the crying, but too weak to even move, elves. Some shriveled and died on the hit, others instead simply began trembling and soon were taken by the zombies or the skeletons and brought to the necromancers, who would deliver the final blow and then add then back to their lines, as faithful servants.

"My lord, the researcher has escaped with fake knowledge of our weaknesses, as you instructed." The shadow muttered, appearing once more next to Artos himself, who smiled.

"Good…"

"My dear Artos…" the voice came out mellowed, but still it sounded fake, distorted, highly pitched too, as it did come from the banshee after all, the newly created one.

Artos rolled his eyes, why, why did all the banshee he create turn out to be strange undead nymphomaniacs!

"No." he replied.

"But I could teach you…"

"No."

"I could show you…"

"Oh no, no, and still…no!" he snarled back at the undead, who pouted a bit, her long pale blue hair tied in a crook on her head, her long clawed hands of a pearly white, her dress was a wedding one, but tattered and mostly destroyed. Her eyes a cold blue and her lips full, yet so violet.

"Fine my love, I'll wait eternity for you."

"The new crypt-touched ghoul?" Artos asked looking around, but earning no reply.

"I asked where he is." He queried once more.

"My ruler…he *was* among the first to charge through so…" as the baron of blood said that, with a slightly apologetic look on his face, Artos raised an eyebrow, before dismissing the issue.

"Call. Him. Back."

"Yes, my lord."

It was going to be a long, long, invasion plan. Yet, if it all worked, the ruse of the century would have gone off without a hitch, and everything, everything, would have been solved.

***Albion***

Louise moved with straight, swaying motions towards the city gates of Dartanes, the onyx deposit had just been on the road, and had proven valuable to her, as she now had a lot of cape-clad individuals walking behind her, in a steady line. As she reached the gates, that were, obviously, closed, she bit her lower lip.

_S: Come on, do as we practiced._

_B: You can do it, Louise._

_L: Fine!_

"Hey!" she exclaimed, starting to wave happily and giggling like a two years old, waiting for someone to come to the gate walls, her wand raised up high, as a sign that yes, she was nobility.

"Who's there? Wait. What is your group doing here!" as a group of at least a dozen of guards, armed with crossbows, pointed their weapons in Louise's direction, one of them, which had a sort of reddish stripe on his right shoulder, "identify yourself!"

"I am a noble of Albion, sir! My uncle Theron Tudor fought and died bravely at Newcastle, I managed to escape with a few of my serfs from the countryside, and made my way till here! Please, could you let us through?" as she ordered that with the best noble-like voice she could muster, the guards stared at their captain, who was lost in thought. On one hand, he had a bossy new noble to please with the scrawny resources of the city, on the other, it was still a noble who could fight off the monstrosity that lurked the streets or that attacked the city walls, all in all, it wasn't a bad deal, and the serfs did seem to have been beaten enough, as the little pieces of flesh he could see under their capes were purple, clear sign of having been beaten strongly.

The gates slowly opened, and as Louise entered first, her faithful servants followed, the captain descended first hand to meet with the noble, but all he was greeted with was fierce white teethes coming from the first serf, that, no longer caring for its cape, revealed a rotting corpse, that still had charged at him, fury and anger in his eyes.

He fell with a yell of pain, as Louise darted into the back alleys of the city that soon crowded with people, all sent in fear of the arrival of a horde of monsters that had passed through the gates. Louise raised her wand only when she had managed to climb on top of a building, and from there, she circled the entirety of Dartanes with the flick of a wrist.

"Boom." She muttered, as a small ball of light suddenly burst open and increased in size, engulfing a square, then another ball of light, then another, until all that Louise could see in the towns squares, plaza, or open spaces, was bright, and then, the spheres disappeared, leaving behind only little flames, and bundles of dust that were swept away by the wind.

_S: Well done with the control._

_B: Wonderful display._

_V: Brimir would have been proud._

_S: Was that a compliment?_

_L: Yes it was! Thank you all!_

"Now on to the remaining resistance, oh no, I lost a friend!" as she realized one zombie had fallen back at the main gate, she rushed downwards, nonchalantly sending to the other world anyone that she met along the way, using her wand to cast small, controlled explosions at them.

Once she reached the gate, she was glad the big meanies had been defeated and that the town was now safe. More than that, she was simply happy all of her friends were still alright, albeit some might need some stiches somewhere. Many had crossbow bolts stuck into their skin, but didn't seem to be bothered by it in the slightest. The order of their ruler had been to stay there and stop any guards coming, and they had obeyed. The fact their ruler tended to talk to them like they actually had a conscience was something they didn't care the slightest about. She could hit them or burn them and yet they'd still follow her, because she was their ruler.

"Okay guys! Follow me!" she chirped to the zombies, who, in one unison motion, began walking behind her without a care in the world, as Louise moved across the now empty streets, the few remaining pocket of resistance were taken care of, and she stopped, or better yet, turned her head of ninety degrees, when she saw some sort of big wooden crates near the docks.

"Are those what I think they are?" she asked with a wide smile.

_S: Seems like emergency rations._

_B: Yeah, food._

_V: Nutritional value not to be ignored._

_L: FOOOOD!_

Louise jolted that way, swiftly followed by the zombies, who had yet to receive another order, and, in the blink of an eye, a crate was smashed open and the pink-haired girl had her face deep into the dried salty meat and the crispy bread that, while stale, was still better than half the things she had eaten to get there.

_B: You could try and eat with more composure._

_L: You mean like a princess?_

_S: Nah, faster you eat, better it is._

_B: There seems to be no ships in port though, so, who brought the crates?_

_S: They've got Gallian symbols on it, maybe a sort of relief package?_

_L: Wait, I don't recall killing Gallian soldiers, Gallians are the people of Charlotte, and she's my friendly rival in love! I must absolutely be sure they are treated well!_

_B: You just nearly vaporized the entire population of the city, if there were Gallian soldiers they have certainly been caught in the area of effect._

_L: I'm…I'm a stupid failure right?_

As Louise thought that, tears began falling down her cheeks as she sobbed without control, she was such a worthless pathetical girl! Her friends were certainly going to hate her if she made another mistake, and she didn't want to make another mistake!

_S: Not this again._

_L: What? I'm a failure, right? I'm…_

_B: No you're not. You couldn't have known._

_L: You would have known though, right?_

_S: WE HAVE SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS! OBVIOUSLY WE ARE SUPERIOR BEINGS!_

_L: So…I'm USELESS…_

_B: Please, stop crying._

As Louise began crying directly like a fountain, falling on her knees and hitting herself, the closest zombie moved and held her hand, since one of their orders was to safeguard the master from harm. For Louise, however, it meant that her dear friend Janson had decided to stop her from harming herself, and so he valued her.

"Sniff…am I a failure, Janson?" the zombie, not being able to comply with the question, since he could only do orders, cocked his head slightly to the right, which however earned him a giggle from Louise.

"That's a no right? You always know how to make me better." As she stood up, Janson returned among the others in line, as Louise cleared her trousers, a bit tattered, from the dirt and…the blood, before putting in her backpack everything she could fit concerning food.

"There must be a ship somewhere though…the crate wasn't small…" as Louise muttered that, she raised her gaze up in the sky. Oh, there it was!

_S: It's a small one._

_B: Perfect. You should be able to reach it with a fly spell._

_L: What about my friends?_

_S: first take the ship, then you can get your friends up with you._

_L: You're right! How smart are you?_

_S: …seven…frigging…hundred…years…_

_B: Calm down Sfor, calm down._

Louise raised her wand, and with a clear and crisp incantation, she chanted off the fly spell, as the weave changed the laws of reality, she felt herself lighter, and with her strong will, able to levitate, just, at a faster speed than the norm.

Aboard the small corvette, the "Serenity", of the Gallian relief effort for the Albion population, chaos had spread. The soldiers wanted to leave, all of them, since after coming back from their patrol, and seeing the city light up like a sun had birthed itself among the buildings, they had all thought to investigate, first, but when they had come to realize that, in truth, there were no survivors in the city, they had panicked, and had started pleading to their captain to depart immediately.

"Even if we wanted to, there are not enough Windstones!" the captain replied, "Those are all down in the docks, we need to get them."

"Captain! We could lower our altitude till we get near the deposit, and then send troops down through the use of ropes!" the reply came from a female and graceful voice, and as the soldiers, all wearing the Gallian crest, and the captain himself turned, they saw a gracious pink-haired girl, who, unluckily for them, had her wand pointed at them, and a sadistic grin on her otherwise pretty face.

"Though you should have thought of it before, you are all stupid! And stupidity doesn't deserve a prize!"

_S: Attack and don't speak!_

_L: Yes, sir!_

First, she took care of their captain, sending with but a few words a set of Magic Missiles against him, that pierced through his flesh, aiming all at the weak points in his armor, and killing him on the spot.

The guards that remained…they simply panicked. Some outright preferring to plummet to their death rather than die in a most horrible way, but those who remained had looks of terror in their eyes, as it seemed that gunshots and arrows passed straight through the girl, without even wounding her.

"I'm here!" as the first girl disappeared, another appeared sitting, legs crossed, on the starboard before then disappearing again, to reappear in the middle of them all.

"Accelerando" she whispered, as slash-marks appeared on the remaining guards, and as they fell to the ground, gurgling their last breaths, she smiled, her wand in her right, and a sword of force in the left.

"See? Was I good?" she chirped, to no-one in particular.

_S: Get downstairs, and clean all of the ship._

_L: Yes, sir!_

_B: Let's get this ship to land at the docks without problems, right Louise?_

_L: Yes Basileus!_

_V: Shiny…_

_S: Stop cleaning my head!_

It took Louise one more use of accelerando, which sent her slightly wheezing for air, as it was a really willpower consuming skill, before the ship slowly began descending.

_S: Good, now, take out the onyxes, and prepare the bodies for skeletons._

_L: But…you said I was at my limit._

_B: Louise, sometimes, sacrifices are necessary._

_L: No…my friends down there trust on me!_

_S: You need nimble skeletons to drive this ship, not zombies._

_L: At least Janson, please._

_S: Fine. But you will have to destroy the others._

_L: Okay…_

_B: And don't tell them lengthy goodbyes._

_L: I…sniff._

Louise waved her wand from where she was, staring down below at her friends, who had divided into two groups already, nineteen on one side, and only one on the other, and then, with a deep sigh, as a single tear rolled down, she cast down a controlled explosion, destroying the nineteen zombies in one fell blow.

_S: I do it all because I'm evil_

_B: and I do it all for free_

_V: Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need._

_S: know the song?_

_B: Hum it along!_

_L: I pledge my allegiance_

_S: to all things dark and i promise on my damned soul _

_B: to do as I am told._

"And it's so easy when you're evil…Animate Undead" as Louise finished chanting the spell, the bodies lost their flesh, that swiftly rotted away, leaving behind only the bones, and the arcane energy that now powered up the skeletons, only ten in all, but still, tomorrow would have brought the others, and so, with those thoughts in mind, Louise smiled.

"Move it guys! Let's dock this ship!" as Louise said that, the skeletons nodded, and swiftly began moving up and down the ropes, setting the sails, and going back down to place the correct amount of windstones needed for a safe, but quick, descent.

Once the ship slowly docked, Janson was put to use together with his new friends, and the small corvette was filled with windstones and any scrap of food left near the city's docks.

Louise had found a nice mantle and a captain's hat, and was now trying to imitate, under the suggestion of Sfor, a pirate way of speaking.

"Ahoy! Plunder behold! Let us rip the guts and charge the …the cannons?"

"Yeah...no." she added after a moment, reddening from the embarrassment.

Finally, the ship was filled, and the corvette began slowly moving towards its destination: Tristain.

"I'm sure they're all going to be so surprised when they see me!" Louise chirped, never mind that, behind her, far away, Vrocks were flying down on screaming villagers, Balor's were churning out their fire whips, and in general, demons were slaughtering, killing, and calling forth more of their numbers.

The floating island of Albion that had for years been under the rule of the Tudor family was now nothing more than a breeding pit for demons, and the few remaining pockets of human resistance had just lost their only route of supply, and also the only ship that made said route. All because a pink-haired girl couldn't wait to go back to Tristain, to help her Queen, and show everyone who really, really, was useless.

***Germanian's Pferdpanzer corps – Near the Magic Academy of Tristain ***

Albert von Riktofen, who hailed from Germania, was actually a born of another world, a fact that he had kept completely, and utterly, silent. Firstly, because he too hadn't believed it, when a green portal had simply popped up in front of him, putting him between the choice of going through it, or being run over by a camion, secondly, because no matter what, he was living a good lie.

He had appeared in a forest, had a run in with a couple of brigands, had managed to escape, nearly die of hunger, and had been taken in by General Handenburg, and for more than two years, he had returned his savior with the knowledge he possessed, and the translation in their tongue of the books he was carrying with him when he was *taken*.

When he had discovered his capacity to use magic, he had begun training in his earnest, and had soon made it to square-class, his fury second to none, his anger making even the fiercest of barbarians recoil, as he walked his way through the Germanian's politics as a panzer would do the same through a set of brick walls. He was a bullet, who just needed to be aimed, and then, the rest would have been charred along his wake.

"That's the academy of magic alright. We got someone who went there? Gustaf! You went there when you were a whelp, right?" as Albert asked the man who was on the horse behind him, a slightly feminine man with raven hair, all he got in reply was a slight and growly.

"Yes. Kicked out when I hit a girl from a higher ranked family for being a prideful whore. There was a new fire teacher, Colbert something, he had that kind of mopey look on him, but still, the others were wussies. The earth mage should faint with a bit of blood, if it's still good old Chevreuse. There's only one gate to enter, and every tower is related to a specific element, except the void one that works as storage. The servant quarters are just behind the central courtyard."

"Good to know. So there's only one entrance…huh." As Albert sighed, he dismounted.

"Gustaf, you take the lead and charge through the gates when I give you the signal. Till then, Gunter, Baras, you two are with me: leave the armor behind, it won't help us."

Two men dismounted their horses, and, obeying their chief, they removed their steel cuirasses, revealing one a stocky face that was tanned to the near extreme, with bright blue eye and white hair, while the other had cut short green hair, hazel eyes and a wide mustache.

"So, here's the plan: we three will levitate by the walls opposite the gate, in the meantime, while we make our way towards the gate, send Arnold as the usual *noblesse oblige*," as he said those words he had a distasteful look on his face, and moved the tongue like it was handling a poisonous word, "messenger, if they surrender, all is good and we are fine. If they refuse, come back, but do try and make it the most long and winded you can, to get us time. The lot of you, we should expect heavy resistance, as the spies have reported beforehand that the la Vallière territory, which we passed days ago by the way, had the Duchess Karin *the Heavy Wind* and her daughters sent here for something concerning their youngest. I don't care how you do it, but if you must fight the Duchess, do not frigging do it alone! Get some students as collateral or meat-shields, and force the headmaster to have her calm down or whatever. In any event, you're not kids, and I ain't your mother. If someone of you has the brilliant idea of dying while we take the school, I'm whipping your corpse until you come back to life, understood!"

"Yes sir!" the men saluted, many with a chuckle.

"Good. Wait till you can no longer see us, and then send Arnold. The signal will be the same as always."

Saying that, Albert took the green and brown cape that was used for camouflage operations from his saddle, and so did both Gunter and Baras, and then they began slowly making their way to the side of the academy, hoping no-one would be able to see them.

It actually worked, as they slowly levitated on the other side of the walls, and then began walking in a straight line towards the gates.

Now, this had been explained from a lesson of life that Albert's father had imparted onto him, since military service had been compulsory in the country where he had been born, till the late twentieth century. If you want to avoid being detected, and forced into military *orders* then you should always act busy, or like under orders, or like you know what you are doing because you belong there. So, even though some servants saw three nobles with Germanian's crest, they didn't scream nor call an alarm, because they had a bored look on their face and one outright yawned as they were making their way to the gates, clearly to go to the stables for their horses. Maybe they were friends of some Germanian student, or his family, or maybe they simply were messengers from Germanian's families, or heck, even mercenaries like the Luftpanzer Ritter, which the servants knew had camped just on the other side of the academy's gates.

Some of the students in the faculty looked at them with a perplexed stare, but since there *were* mercenaries just on the other side of the wall that acted as private guards for the recently enrolled Beatrice Yvonne von Guldenhorf, which came from Germania, they simply presumed that those men where what her corps looked like without their armor on.

The irony was that none of the Pferdpanzer corps had seen the Luftpanzer corps on the other side of the walls, because if they had, they wouldn't have resorted to such trickery to enter the compound, a fact that would make for a very interesting tale, later on, and even sprout a comedy based on misunderstandings.

As Beatrice Guldenhorf was de-facto harassing a blond big breasted girl, namely Tiffania, into removing her hat, just so then, the three men of the Pferdpanzer corps had to pass nearby to get to the gate.

"Hey, you lot!" Beatrice yelled gesturing at the three that were clearly mage of Germania.

Albert stopped dead on his tracks, looked for a moment at the sky, and then turned around with a bright smile:

"Yes, my lady? How may I help…" as he began saying that slowly, thankfully Baras intervened, making a slight head bow.

"How may we help her highness Beatrice Guldenhorf?" swiftly followed in his gestures by both Albert and Gunter.

"I told you that if you needed your clothes stitched you should have gone to the town and not to the servants in the school, I thought that as proud members of the corps you'd know that." As she said that, the three froze for a moment.

"We…we are deeply sorry." Albert muttered, being the one out of the three that spun the better lies.

"Anyway, those rags aren't worthy the stich of the servants here, but I'll forgive you, if you'll grab this girl here and teach her a good lesson, she doesn't even know my name!"

_As neither did I, just what the hell is going on? _As Albert thought that, he nodded, making the angriest face he could resort to.

"Certainly! This will not stand! We will bring her with us, and swiftly teach her the proper respect." As he moved closer, grabbing a firm hold on Tiffania's arm, he pulled her with strength to move alongside him.

The girl's eyes turned watery, and she simply looked so frail and innocent that something snapped inside of Albert's guts, as it did also in Gunter's and Baras' ones.

"We…will bring her back with us, and teach her a very important lesson, that we can't show your grace, since it will be particularly gruesome." As Albert said that, trying to keep hold of his evil act, Beatrice grinned in happiness.

"Good! But then report back to me how well you punished her!"

And as Tiffania had just begun sobbing, Albert began pulling her with him, away from the horrid wrench of a girl, and, when they were sufficiently out of ear shot, and nearing the gates, he whispered to the silently crying blond, who still had an impressive rack.

"Hey, listen: we aren't for hitting girls, so I'll just let you leave once we get to the gate, okay? You'll wait a while and then you can act a bit scared when that girl moves near you, and just remember to keep bowing, got it?" As Albert whispered that, Tiffania stared at him with puppy eyes that filled with hope that the scornful looking man wasn't actually evil, and she slightly nodded.

That was when they got their road blocked by a professor, a bald professor which was wielding a staff with his hands, and was staring at them with a slightly angered look.

"What are you doing to one of the students of this prestigious academy?" as he said that, slightly angered, Baras backed away slightly, since out of them all, he recognized a professional born killer when he met one.

Albert and Gunter tensed, since they weren't Pferdpanzer units for nothing, but kept their cool as Albert whispered:

"Listen, we're just doing our job, Miss Guldenhorf wants the girl to learn respect, and…"

"Have you no shame to bully a young girl, three mercenaries like yourself!" as the Professor screeched that, Albert muttered under his teethes:

"We. Did. Not. Wish. To. Harm. The. Girl. We were going for the gates, then, we'd let her go."

"Oh…" as the professor said that, however, Beatrice took that time to watch the scene and catch up with them, butting into the conversation:

"Please do not harass the members of my private guard, Professor Colbert! As you may know the Luftpanzer Ritter is one of the best company available and…" as the girl said that, it took all their nerve and resolve not to yell out loud what the hell were their rival company doing out there, especially guarding the bitch.

To say that the Luftpanzer and the Pferdpanzer were rivals was like stating that the sun was cold, they saw each other like smoke in the eyes, since the first was merely a mercenary company that followed orders, while the second, being tied down by the use of horses, had reinvented herself as the personal guard of the generals and important people. The first were a bit richer than the latter, but the latter had more political influence then the first, it was a pretty balanced situation, if not for the nights of leave were casually members of both companies would start fist-fights in the middle of the streets, that had to be broken up by higher ranked members, who would instead resort to wand duels, that had to be called off when either Albert himself, as the leader of the company of the Pferdpanzer, or the *Marquis* (cough cough bought title cough cough) Bismarck von Adelaide came to finally break the fight.

"Still, they are acting out of their boundaries, and I must recall you that in this academy, everyone is treated equally and with respect and as such…" as the Professor replied, another voice added itself to the mix.

"Excuse me…" the voice came from a gentle pink-haired woman, with a wide bust, who looked a bit pale and sickly.

"Please can't you all quiet down? Can't you see that the poor girl is shivering?" as the woman said so, with a kind smile, Albert raised an eyebrow, and then stared down at Tiffania, who was actually clinging to his arm. He had felt something warm and soft against his side for a while, but hadn't yet registered it as that, still, as she held onto his arm like it was the last anchor of sanity in a world of madness, he couldn't help but feel real sincere pity for the girl.

"Madame!" Beatrice snapped at the woman, "This doesn't concern you! I am Beatrice Yvonne Von Guldenhorf, who am I speaking with that dares to make me *quiet down*!"

Albert turned his gaze on Gunter, the one who seemed the closest to the gate and who had, thanks to his not so clean past, managed to go by largely unnoticed in distancing himself from the group, and then he blinked to him once with his right eye, as Gunter turned around and left.

"If you wish to know, I am Miss Cattleya Yvette La Baume Le Blanc de La Vallière, and as daughter of the Duke de La Vallière, I must ask you once more to keep your tone down." As the woman replied that, Albert stared now at Baras, who looked back at his commander with a sympathetic look. In that instant they understood each other through a sort of empathic link.

-Commander, you will never be forgotten-

-Don't you dare start running or I'm shooting you in the back-

-I want leave for three days-

-I'm giving you a paid nine month vacation but don't you dare move-

-Yes, sir!-

As the brief mental exchange went by, Tiffania found herself being grabbed by Beatrice and strongly pulled away from Albert, said fact meant that Albert applied force to avoid being pulled, and that in turn made Tiffania strengthen her grip on the man's arm.

"Fine, but this girl has to let go of my mercenary!" Beatrice sneered, not daring to say anything at a higher tone, or to speak against the la Vallière, as her father had instructed her prior to her entering the academy.

"N-no!" Tiffania whimpered, keeping her grip.

"Please Miss Guldenhorf if you would just…" as Colbert tried once more to defuse the situation, Cattleya's eyes slowly narrowed down a bit.

"Miss Beatrice, please, stop acting like a child." At those words, Beatrice stopped pulling on Tiffania's arms, but with a wicked grin, said:

"Fine!" all while grabbing the now unguarded hat of the girl.

What the young Guldenhorf hadn't expected, as well as the Professor Colbert, or Baras, or even Cattleya, was that pointy ears appeared instead of the normal round ears common to humans, and that, naturally, made them jump away.

For Albert, who wasn't at all new to concept like elves, especially the World of Warcraft ones…well, now his interest was definitively picked and his mind had begun tracing thoughts best left to someone else imagination. Still, he realized it only after a while that everyone else had jumped backwards, and everyone had their wands, or staves, in a defensive posture.

"Don't move…" Baras whispered as he visibly paled with his wand in hand.

"Huh?" thankfully everyone had thought that the mercenary had simply gone senile with fear rather than actually being simply not bothered by the fact.

"I…I'm not evil…" Tiffania whimpered, keeping a firm grip on Albert.

"Aha! I knew it! She's an heretic!" Beatrice said while pointing at her.

"All I see is a scared girl." Cattleya replied, albeit she had grabbed her wand on reflex, she put it back down, with a saddened expression of how the disappearance of Louise had sent her on a paranoid route.

"Miss Westwood, the Headmaster knew about this?" Professor Colbert queried which earned him a silent nod from the girl.

"Then there is no problem, as far as school regulations go." As he lowered his staff, Beatrice yelled.

"What is wrong with you! She's an elf who's holding hostage one of my guards! I demand her trialed!"

"Really?" at that point, the situation took a turn for the worst. The reason being that the voice hadn't come from any of the currently involved in conversation persons, but by a new voice, which belonged to a pink-haired woman, who had a sterner look on her face, and just so casually had moved closer to her second youngest daughter.

That…that was problematic, as Baras paled even more, and was now hoping that, anytime soon, the Pferdpanzer corps would charge straight in.

"Mother…the girl is scared and Miss Guldenhorf here doesn't want to calm down," Cattleya replied gesturing at both Beatrice and Tiffania.

"I say we should stop talking about this so publicly and with such a loud voice, as we're attracting attention." Professor Colbert said, pointing that out, as the Duchess raised an eyebrow.

"Flame snake…are you perhaps…" But at the discovery that even the Flame Snake was there, Bara simply couldn't hold it anymore, and with a loud scream, he raised his wand, sending up a flare that brightly lit the sky, and that meant that yes, they could charge in, just as he did that he also began dashing away, from Elves, Duchess, Flame snakes, and Guldenhorf or not. The commander would handle it!

Not too sooner had he done that, that an explosion was heard near the gates, swiftly followed by loud yells of "FOR GERMANIA!" as the Pferdpanzer Ritter charged straight through the newly placed hole in the place of where the gates stood before.

"I'm firing that man." Albert muttered, as his wand moved straight to point at the elven girl, and holding her hostage, he simply declared:

"By the Will of the Emperor of Germania, surrender your wands, and you will be spared death."

"What! What is the meaning of this you…you're not a Luftpanzer!" as Beatrice said that, a small chuckle erupted from Albert's back, as he let out a sigh.

"Kirche Von Zerbst, this is betrayal." He stated.

"Still, *Hellfire* you got yourself a handful, don't you?" the Germanian replied, as the Duchess had her wand raised, together with Colbert and Cattleya.

"Tristain's academy is a neutral area for students to learn!" as Colbert said that, loud yells were heard coming nearer, followed by horse's hooves soundly clapping on the road.

Steeds with black or dark brown manes began circling around the academy, their owners chanting and throwing fire spells against the windows and the towers, forcing the students inside to come out, many trembling, while the teachers found nothing better to do but raise their wands in surrender.

The noise attracted the Luftpanzer Ritter corps, that was camped outside, and, once the dragoon flew up in the sky, since they both still had Germanian's colors, instead of directly opening fire, a messenger descended into the *eye of the storm*.

Said eye was a deadlock, between Albert Von Riktofen, Kirche Von Zerbst, Cattleya and the Duchess Karin the Heavy wind, Professor Colbert the Flame Snake and an utterly terrified and trembling Tiffania used as hostage. Beatrice Guldenhorf had run away crying, and had been obviously grabbed by one of the horsemen and brought into the group of captured students.

"Albert Von Riktofen! What is the meaning of this?" the man who had spoken from the Dragoon of the Luftpanzer wasn't more of a messenger for his corps, but he knew pretty well the face of the man who had pacified more fist-fights than anyone else.

"By order of his Excellency the Emperor of Germania Albrecht the third himself, the magic academy of Tristain is to be subdued by force to allow us a direct and straight supply line for the siege of Tristania! As fellow Germanians, albeit mercenaries, you are hereby conscripted into his army, and should report to General Handenburg, as the leader of the forces."

"What? To get to Tristania you should have passed by the La Vallière Estates and fiefdoms!" the Duchess replied, gritting her teethes.

"Oh that mansion? We left it to another division. We had a different objective. Gustaf, if you're laughing at the scene, you should know that after I kill Baras I'm going to kill you next!" as Albert yelled that, a man who had been watching the scene, wand in man sighed, and moved closer, together with a couple more of the Pferdpanzer soldiers.

"If any of you moves, Von Riktofen here kicks the bucket!" Kirche yelled.

"Do that and you break the deadlock Kirche," Albert replied, "you see, the deadlock right here is between me, Heavy Wind and Flame Snake. You? You're the extra."

"Extra!" as Kirche yelled that bewildered, her wand was charred out of her hand by a nearby cavalrymen, and she was quickly subdued.

"So in the end, it comes to who is faster at dodging and casting isn't it?" the Duchess muttered, as Cattleya, trembling, didn't know what to do.

"Well, actually how about we stay fair? You surrender your wand, and you get treated like all the other prisoners which, by the way, would make it easier for us to capture all of the school compound. Still…"

"Mother!" another voice yelled, at which point, the Duchess clenched her wand tightly, as Cattleya stared in shock at Eleonore being captured and brought forward, a wand pointed straight behind her head.

"So? Want to lose *another* child?" Albert queried, with an evil grin.

"You…you have no honor." Karin spat out angrily, as she threw the wand to the ground.

"Flame snake, your students? Care not for them?" Colbert clenched his teethes; he did the same thing as the duchess, dropping down his staff, swiftly followed by Cattleya.

"Bind them hands feet and mouth. These two I'm sure could cause troubles with but a finger," Albert replied, as the Pferdpanzer corps obeyed, their chief added, "still, do not worry, give no problems, and you'll have no problems."

"Gallia will not stand silent to this! Charlotte will go and get reinforcements and will come back for us!" Kirche screamed, fiery even when they tried to bind her.

"Oh, shut her up too!" Albert said.

"Ehm…what should I report back to the Marquis?" the messenger of the Luftpanzer queried.

"Tell that if they aren't near Tristania in two days, then he'll have to save his sorry ass from the emperor's wrath."

"Yes, sir!" the messenger flew with his dragoon upwards, to reach the Marquis, but, while doing that, something made him think…why did he call him Sir?

"Ehm…can you let me go?" Tiffania queried, trembling, as she was still being held by Albert, who raised an eyebrow while staring at her. He already had half thoughts about what it meant to pillage and conquer, and knew that some, in his place, would have simply claimed the right and then throw her at the rest of the corps after cutting her ears to make her more *human-like*. Still, he wasn't like the others, and he had changed many of the barbarian nature of his fellow underling. It proved to be quite a test of will however, as the wide assets the girl had, those, were quite convincing.

Still, he muttered:

"You are coming with me, and you're going to explain me why such a beautiful rose as yourself has hidden her wonderful nature for so long, if it suits you, my lady." As he said that with a smile, the girl reddened heavily, while a blond boy in the lines of the captured students took it as a point to keep the sentence as a sure-kill move.

Sure, the rest of the corps, and those who saw the pointed ears, had begun thinking the elf had enticed him, until, as he walked towards a peaceful spot to settle down, he showed behind his back a victory symbol, followed by crossing his fingers, the secret code for *I'm lying*.

Oh well, if he was using her, everything seemed normal.

***Germanian's Battle-line-Two days later***

The cannons for the siege had been placed on a nearby hill, and tilted of forty-five degrees upwards, out of the twenty-thousands Germanian troops that had crossed the border, seventy-five, that belonged to the Pferdpanzer corps were obviously missing for a secret mission, but the Luftpanzer corps had been conscripted into joining the ranks of their troops, and as such, they now wielded some sort of air superiority, having only four supply ships with them, as the rest had been kept along the border with Gallia, for precaution.

All that Tristania had scrapped had been a measly four thousand troops, and two ships, as the rest that should have arrived from La Rochelle had turned rogue, no longer replying.

Still, all in all, it wouldn't be a siege of attrition, as the ambassador that had requested that Tristania surrender came back in pieces, thrown by a trebuchet from the other side of the city, the Germanian men were already angered.

Still, they waited for their commanders to come back from the General's tent, while the General himself was still in the process of planning an assault.

"So, as I was saying, the First and Second platoon of the Shockwave corps charge through the bridge, once we blast it away with fire mages and create an earth bridge. We should be able to reach the town's square, and from there we try and conquer the palace. In the meantime, the musketeer's line should advance under artillery protection, remember to calibrate the cannons as Herr Riktofen said, and then, if that's not all, remember gents: first we conquer, then we consider the damage we have done. Destroy if need to be, but conquer the city and capture the queen alive. Clear?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good: cavalrymen will be sent to guard the flanks of the mages, they should advance, then make tight turns and turn around, while the victory will be clearly ours, the Tristain's forces will fight till their last breath! Alea iacta est! To Victory, or To Death!"

"YES SIR!"

As the commanders left, after batting their gauntlet protected fists against their plate armor, General Handenburg whispered slowly and deliberately.

"May Brimir have mercy on the civilians..." he shook his head afterwards, and clenching his fist, was prepared to leave the tent, when suddenly, another voice spoke behind him.

"Brimir doesn't exist, General." As the General swiftly turned around, he found himself lacking voice, to scream for help or to chant a spell. In front of him stood the King of Gallia, or better yet, someone who once was the king of Gallia, yet he had managed to escape from the country's prisons.

"Now, now, I know you wish to scream, but don't leave…not yet anyway." As the Idiot king raised his wand, the general stood very still. How did he manage to get inside, and not be noticed by anyone of the commanders? He wasn't there a minute ago, and, furthermore, his tent hadn't been that dark moments before.

"Good. Now, if things keep going like this, you *will* lose the battle. So, since I'm feeling magnanimous, I'm going to make you a nice, clean, offer, of partnership, let us say…"

The General was now thinking the ex-king Joseph actually deserved the title of Mad King.

"I know that gaze, oh general you don't know how much I know that gaze, it was the same gaze my counselors gave me, or my so called *friends* among the nobles, but it doesn't matter, general, all that I want you to know is that, after your loss, you will retreat, and in doing so, you will begin losing men, and once you'll reach Vindobona, your Emperor will give the fault to you…so, when that happens, if you wish to become the true Emperor of Germania, just say the following word: Hextor. Repeat it three times, and once you'll do that, well, you will be the Emperor."

Joseph had clearly gone insane! This was a horrid trick, and as soon as his guards would hear him, or if he moved as fast as possible, then he would be captured once more.

"No…I've gone far more than insane, general… I have gazed and seen…oh you don't want to know. Anyway, remember, if you so do, all I ask in exchange is for you to be a nice, obedient, and kind emperor who will wish to put back on his rightful throne the real King of Gallia, me…father chose me after all, on his deathbed." And with those final words, and with a wicked grin, just as he had arrived, the king of Gallia disappeared.

Handenburg took some time to catch back his breath, and then exited the tent, to be, for a moment, blinded by the sun's glare, as he moved near his horse and mounted it, to give a final word to his army, using wind magic to enhance his voice, he yelled, so that the proud and strong warriors of Germania could hear him.

"The Queen of Tristain has refused to bow to the might of the Emperor Albrecht the Third! For too long have we been considered inferior to Tristain's people! Barbarian we have been called countless times! Inferior to them! US who can mold steel like clay! US! Who have a Fourth of Halkeginia under our hand! SHOW THEM, GERMANIANS! SHOW. THEM. OUR. STRENGHT!" as he yelled that, his voice amplified by magic, the horde yelled and screamed its consent, and soon, pike moved down into position, and the frontline began moving as one sole man.

"It begins." The general, Handenburg, muttered, taking a spyglass and directing the operation from his horse, and from the hill, where he had better vision.

The horde's cavalrymen charged head strong their horses breathing and panting hard as the proud knights of Germania wielded their wands ahead of them, casting fire spells and wind spells at the Tristain's soldiers holed up on the walls, while the mages swiftly followed on lighter armored horses in the middle of the them.

Mages upon the Tristain's walls cast down their own spells, but by the time they finished casting, Germanians were already underneath them, as the reinforced gate didn't immediately cracked, having been put under a ward by magic, the cavalrymen began turning around, readying themselves for another strike while staying away from the boiling oil that was being thrown at them thanks to some water mages on the walls, that acted as healers and as *throwers* of the flammable and scorching substance.

The Mages of Germania however weren't renowned for their fire for nothing, and at the second rerun, the gate cracked down, to reveal a wall of musketeers who shot forward three lines of bullets, bringing down the horses and some of the cavalrymen themselves. As the first three musketeers' line moved backwards, other three moved forwards, only, this time, they were met with fiercer resistance, as some of the cavalrymen had managed to close the short distance and actually inflict some harm before falling down to the next volley of bullets.

The mages of Germania had been made to retreat, as they would be of a trouble than anything else, as the Luftpanzer Ritter took to the sky, finally, after having been held down and used as an unexpected resource.

Up above, in the sky, the two Tristain's ships had begun mercilessly bombarding the Germanian front line of musketeers and pike-men, but, while it was true that many ended up pulverized by the shots, and some even killed when the cannon ball bounced away, they still held their lines as they advanced.

The Dragoons of Germania flew swiftly, while dodging the magic attacks sent at them from the mages aboard the enemies' ships, and cast their own volley of Fireballs and Air Blades, cracking the hull of the ship, but unluckily not putting her out of service yet, as a set of arrows was let loose on the Dragoons from down below, some fell to the sheer amount of arrows being thrown, while the majority who could cast an Air Shield emerged unscathed by the attack.

Soon, the second volley split the ship's side, sending many men to lose their balance and plunge downwards, to their death. Those who didn't were now easy picks for the Germanian's dragoons, who, without mercy, broke the ship's mast and sent it crashing down on the houses of the city, before moving to the other one, that had been moving away from the first, maybe to reposition itself and provide better cover.

Down below, the musketeers had kept neatly retreating and letting loose volleys of bullets, while from the streets men would throw barrels of gunpowder at the advancing Germanians, forcing them to control the fire magic cast, lest they'd ignite themselves too. That wouldn't have been a problem, had they had a water mage, but in Germania, water mages were as scarce as the morality of a Zerbst, which was all that could be said on the matter.

The remaining cavalry of the shockwave platoons decided to split into the city, leaving their horses behind, since going in the narrow streets with their mounts would have been suicide. It still was, as from the roofs crossbow-men shot their bolts at them, and pike-men of Tristain did what they could to hold the choke points of the city, going as far as fighting to the last men. They were bleeding everything they had for everything they could, and in doing so they were forcing the Germanians to bleed with every step they took inside the city.

The musketeers were the biggest hassle, as being a small group of five-hundred, but elite trained, they had suffered no more than seven losses, and were still fighting off the enemy without a hitch, as they retreated every few volleys of fire, ambushing behind the corners the charging Germanians and darting away as walls of Tristain's pikes blocked the assaulters.

As the Germanian's forces found themselves blasting through fallen debris and torn down houses, they couldn't help but be thankful to the artillery that Von Riktofen had created, that permitted cannon balls to actually be propelled upwards and forwards with uncanny precision, also thanks to something that the Herr had called *Lining*, and to a change in materials, no longer in bronze but in steel and pig-iron, followed with the amelioration of the gunpowder used. The results had been devastating as such things had been applied to muskets and guns too, making them far more deadly and precise than anything the other nations had.

A volley of cannonballs fell from the sky straight against a most obstinate group of pike-men clearing the way for the shield and sword platoon to move forward. The palace was in sight, and within, certainly, was the Queen of Tristain and soon to be slave of the Emperor Albrecht the third.

Inside the palace, the Queen had been sobered up, and, while the Queen's mother had committed suicide, to avoid having her daughter die, as the Emperor needed but a single royal, and had no use for more than one, Henrietta stood in wait, in the throne room of Tristania, together with Agnes, a handful of most trustful musketeers, and the regent, Cardinal Mazarin, who was chewing on his knuckles with anger.

"THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE ALREADY!" he yelled, muttering curses to the Gramont family.

"They…will certainly arrive." General de Poitiers replied, shaking a bit, as he held his wand tightly, as a sort of good luck charm.

"We are going to die." Henrietta stated, simply.

"Your Highness…" Agnes muttered, but stopped speaking, as Henrietta kept whispering.

"Nobody is going to come and save us. No god. No Founder's chosen. No-one. We are all going to die here. Today. In this room. With no hope for safety. Gramont has probably made a run for Gallia, or has betrayed us to Germania. There is no way he'll come back for me."

"Your highness, you must not despair like this, surely he will arrive!" De Poitiers screeched, to which the Queen stared at him with empty eyes.

"People are dying. In the streets of my city. Even the kids were given weapons, like daggers or small swords. Everyone is fighting for me, for my life…and I am not worth it!" as Henrietta yelled that, a loud clap resonated into the room.

It was a set of claps, actually, coming from a well-dressed individual, who was, strangely, wearing a tuxedo and a tuba hat. He a monocle on his right eye, and a black haired goatee, a cheerful smile, and white gloves to cover his hands.

Everyone instinctively pulled their wands out, except Henrietta, who stared at the strange figure, and the musketeers, who simply aimed their guns.

"Now, now, no need to be so…prepared for myself. I am just a kind stranger, passing by, who could solve your problems, in the blink of an eye…" as he said that, suavely, he just so casually snapped the fingers, and all lights went off, even if they came from the windows, they looked like suddenly something had closed them shut, or blocked the light from entering.

"I fortunately know a little magic…" he hummed.

"It's a talent that I always have possessed, and dear lady, please don't laugh,

I use it on behalf of the miserable, the lonely and depressed.

Poor unfortunate souls.

In pain, in need."

As he whispered that, his voice seemed to have gotten closer to Henrietta, as she could hear it getting stronger.

"So, how about a deal, between you and me? Sign a contract, take the plume and prick your finger, write in blood and grant me a little. In exchange your country will be saved, and the Germanians will run away from here." As he whispered that, a bright white plume appeared in the middle of the darkness, followed by a contract written in such fine print that she couldn't even manage to read it.

"You can save those who are still fighting, you know…but I'm sure you will need time to think…so take it."

And then, as suddenly as the darkness had arrived, it dispersed, leaving a baffled De Poitier, who instead of a wand was now wielding the Cardinal's nose, and the surprised Cardinal, who held what seemed like raw meat in his hand.

The musketeers shrieked for a moment, as they had been subjected to a more cruel fate: they were all naked, even Agnes herself, and while the captain had only but reddened a little, the rest of guards was trying their best to cover their intimate areas.

"This…Who was that man!" the Cardinal yelled, as he cleaned his hand and got free from De Poitiers' grip, while Henrietta, looking around, saw the glint of the white plume near a desk, coupled with the paper.

Their clothes and wands were found behind a column, and as the musketeers had just finished dressing up once more, a messenger entered the palace, sweating heavily, like he had run there as fast as he could.

"They took the plaza! But the Ships from La Rochelle that had gone disappearing are arriving!"

"FINALLY!" the Cardinal yelled, raising his wand.

"Let us go your highness, let us go outside and encourage the defenders!"

As the group moved outside, Henrietta staying silent, as she was holding the contract firmly to her chest, together with the plume that she was going to use to write her name down, Agnes frowned, as she had not seen the Queen holding a document, but still, maybe it was her will?

The ships from La Rochelle had their masts filled by the wind as they slowly entered the battlefield, clouds suddenly darkening the sun, just so slightly.

The Germanian's General, Handenburg, watched with a mixture of surprise and anger at the scene, as the fleet of Tristain's ships prepared its flank, ready to fire upon where the Germanian's army was: half inside the city, but the other half blocked from entering due to the gates for the city not being as wide as they should have, because of the debris.

So, when panic ran through the men, many pushed back, but others pushed forward, blocking them as the cannons roared, explosions where the cannonballs hit strong enough to tear and rend whole squads.

The Luftpanzer Ritter knew a lost battle, when they saw one, and they most courageously decided to charge the enemy in the opposite direction, running back to camp for further instructions from the general.

Henrietta smiled at the scene, seeing Germania in panic, at inches from victory, made her have a bit of hope…a bit of hope that was crushed as soon as the wails began to be heard.

First, it was but a lament, but soon it grow in intensity, until it became a chorus of pain, anger, and moans of unearthly fear. From the masts, the hulls, the decks, from the wooden walls of the ships, shadows leapt forward, launching themselves floating downwards, their numbers obscuring the few rays of the sun that had remained, their dark eyes glittering with fierce red speckles. As darkness, made of shadow claws and shadow teethes descended, the wave of laments and moans echoed thorough the battlefield, leaving behind nothing but dead corpses that, as a shivering Henrietta could see, turned to dust and left behind a shadow, that added her lament and her hate for life to that of the others.

"What…" Henrietta whispered, having no idea what was going on…but realizing that those, those things were not friends.

She rushed towards the palace walls, Agnes following her quickly, and screaming for her to stop, but Henrietta lifted her wand, sending a column of water from the nearby lake to push the captain away from her.

"LEAVE THE CITY!" she yelled to Agnes, before literally stabbing her hand with the plume, and signing the contract by using the walls of the palace as a surface.

"Take what you want, but SAVE MY PEOPLE!" Henrietta screeched as the contract burned vividly for a moment, before dispersing in a puff of smoke.

"He was right. Good hunch, great hit, seems I actually do owe him one." The man with the black goatee said, appearing out of thin air next to the Queen Henrietta.

"He? Who is he?" Henrietta whispered, tears falling down her eyes, as she watched the man's face suddenly turn redder, horns growing from his head, and a wicked tail sprouting, as a smile with fangs took the place of his normal teethes.

"Normally, as the ruler of a layer of Inferi, I wouldn't have bothered, but to find a virgin of royal blood? Who was also dumb to boot? I love this place. You know what, I'll answer that question: Artos Basileus Sfor told me of this great place to come and have some fun, and suggested you…because you were naïf."

As Henrietta widened her eyes and screamed, moving her wand against the Devil, for a devil it was, and not just any devil, the wand turned to cinders in a moment.

Agnes felt herself being pulled away, like somebody had grabbed her by the shoulder and, with a swift push, had thrown her somewhere else, since, when she landed, she was in a dark and damp place, in a cell of the palace's dungeon actually.

A man, in a golden and silver armor, stood there, silently watching the woman who had stood back up and was weary of him.

"There is no time." The armor clad man spoke.

"The queen! I HAVE TO SAVE THE QUEEN!" the musketeer yelled.

"It's too late. Take the girl," pointing at the girl in the cell, that had stood there for weeks and yet hadn't rotted or perished, "and bring her to Gallia. There, tell those who wield a symbol of a gauntlet and a sword that Heironeus has chosen you as you valor and your loyalty are unwavering."

"I don't care about her! I need to save the queen!" Agnes tried to move, but couldn't.

"If you do not save her, she will die. She is important. She must not die. Bring her to Gallia, search for Heironeus' faithful, and there you will be safe. Do this, and once evil will be defeated, I will reunite you with your queen." As he said that, he gently touched the floor with his flaming sword, and the cell of the girl opened.

"Now go…I will protect your escape." As he whispered that, once more, he disappeared into thin dust.

Agnes clenched her fists, she had no idea what was going on, but she felt compelled to obey, as she grabbed the young girl, light as a feather, she began running.

As the shadows crept upon the Germanian's forces, general Handenburg ordered a retreat for all who could, and was first among those who left the camp there in a hurry, as the shadows seemed to be creeping upon them for every minute that passed.

The Devil saw the soldiers retreat and smiled, not caring in the slightest for the shadows that were devouring the Tristain's population, after all…as he sank his dagger into the queen's chest, where her heart was, he whispered:

"You shouldn't sign contracts you don't read, but more importantly, never sign contracts with a devil…you cannot destroy in battle."

As light faded from Henrietta's eyes, she couldn't help but wonder…why?

**Author's notes**

**Yes, Sfor & co sang *When you're evil* (at least a humming of it)**

**Pferdpanzer stands for *Armored Land* where Luftpanzer (the original from the manga) stand for *Air Armor***

**Yes, the devil, the ruler of one of the planes of the Inferi, sang a song from the Little Mermaid, at least, a piece of it. **

**Yes, this is *not* the last chapter. (It simply grew on me as I was writing, really!)**

**Albert, if you still haven't understood it, comes from the modern world. (Might point this out now, so as to be 100% clear)**

**Now, some things, (If you recall the previous chapters) are starting to make more sense, aren't they? **

**Be prepared, for the rest is coming along, and as we go to hell in a handbasket (I'm hearing Voltaire's music as of recently), let us hope for a nice, swift, and hopeful, set and bulk of reviews.**


	15. Chapter 15: The Final Countdown

Chapter fifteen

Albert Von Riktofen stared with a puzzled look at the chessboard in front of him, then, as if he had received some sort of high above suggestion, he slowly moved the rook of two squares to the right, and then waited for his opponent's move. Delicate fingers wrapped themselves around the horse piece, and then, a graceful voice, albeit a bit trembling, whispered.

"Checkmate."

"You got me, again." The mage sighed, as he stared with a slight smirk at the elven girl in front of him, who perfectly knew how to play chess. Well, it was an improvement over the last two days, in which, after having captured the academy, having brought all the artifacts out, and having sent the Germanian students, Zerbst included, but tied up, back to their parents, he and a token force of twenty men had stayed behind to guard the strategic point. He had handed over the Duchess, Karin the Heavy Wind, to his forces which were moving back to Vindobona, while he had kept her daughters hostage. Strangely enough, the bitchiness of the blond haired woman had stopped the moment she had realized that no, enemy nobles weren't treated with gloves by him. Still, he had been fair: they had a room they could share, and hadn't been touched by any of his men, and they got food and a regular change of the *bathroom bucket*, because yes, even nobles were mortals.

"I...I'm sorry." She muttered looking at her hands, and earning herself a puzzled look.

"Why should you be sorry?"

"I'm winning." She whispered back.

"So?"

"You should be angry." As she pointed that out, Albert chuckled and shook his head.

"Trust me, if I ever got angry for this, I'd be in for some serious anger management issues."

Tiffania stared with a more puzzled look at the man who didn't seem afraid in the least of her being an elf, the first day she had thought he was simply faking it, trying to act in front of his men as a courageous person, but as it had turned out, when she had been brought to her room, and kept under check, he actually had decided to keep talking to her. It was strange, as he didn't seem evil, albeit being a conqueror, and having taken her as a hostage, but the man had also said something strange, concerning that sort of feeling when she had spoken of how she was starting to like him. Something about a Stockholm syndrome of the sort, and when she had asked him if it was a sickness, he had laughed it out.

"You are…strange."

"Strange? That's something new to be called, I suppose," as he said that shrugging, Tiffania wasn't sure if he had been offended or not, he didn't seem to take many things as offensive though, and he hadn't even made a move to beat her or do something else.

"You don't act like the others, some…of my classmates, when they see me walking with you, are afraid of me now. You aren't. I know elves are considered monsters, but…" as she whimpered that she held her ears, strangely prolonged at the extremities, with her hands.

"The only monsters I know of are those born of ignorance," Albert replied, "and furthermore, from where I come from, you would be surrounded by men who'd want your hand without rest every day." Heck, fantasy literature had already carved itself deep into the modern world, if any real elf like creature were to appear, graceful like Tiffania, and kind like her really, there wouldn't even be a flinch from the general population. There would be lines of elf-lovers though vowing their love for her in Thalassian, or in whatever language of whatever fantasy universe the elves spoke.

Tiffania blushed at the thought, but still her next question was interrupted by a loud banging coming from the door.

"We've got a problem commander!" Gunter yelled from the other side of the door, so, as Albert went, strangely with his wand in his hand, to look what the problem was, Tiffania began rearranging the pieces of the chessboard, since it was the only one she had and she didn't want the pieces to be scattered.

"What's the problem Gunter?" as Albert opened the door, it was clear that the man on the other side had either seen a ghost, or something even worst.

"There's a Luftpanzer messenger, he's gravely wounded, and he doesn't look right in his mind at all, he's blabbering nonsense of shadows attacking and devils from hell, and really, you'd better come yourself."

"Fine, Tiffania, maybe we'll see each other later." As Albert waved a goodbye, closing the door behind him, Tiffania could only nervously mutter a *Bye*.

After a couple of minutes of steady walk, Gunter managed to pout.

"Got anything useful from the elf?"

"We're bringing her to Germania eventually," Albert replied, earning himself a small and even, to some standards, girly shriek from the man next to him.

"An elf at the emperor's palace! That could be considered treason!"

"Or it could be the most excellent political card, and, if played right…well, pope and his magic, or elves and their magic?" as Albert replied that, Gunter narrowed his eyes.

"This is a delicate terrain you're threading on, Albert."

"Gunter, before everything, this company is my life. If we can put elven meat-shields between us and the enemy, why, tell me, should we not do so?"

"It could work, but it's risky, and heresy would be avoided only if you could actually convince them."

"Gunter, I'm pretty sure my convincing skills don't need much polishing…remember the chats I tend to have with the priests in Germania?" as Albert pointed that out, Gunter shivered.

"Curse you, now I remember that there is nothing in the afterlife. I hate the philosophers from your country, Von Riktofen!" as he joked on that, raising his fist up, they had just arrived in the courtyard, where, near a badly wounded dragon, stood its knight, holding onto his left hand and shivering pretty badly, his face pale and his eyes shocked. There was quite a commotion, since some of the students had been left to move around, or better yet, a more apt term would have been "to be used as workforce."

The servants too had relaxed more, especially after Albert had a nice chat with the cook, a certain Marteau, offering him full indemnity for any vile act he'd do on the Tristain's noble's food. No need to say that severe cases of diarrhea had started among the most prideful and scornful students and even the headmaster had pleaded to simply be imprisoned in the bathroom stall, rather than in the common room with the other teachers.

"So…what happened?" Albert queried, looking with a small smile at the messenger.

"Shadows…ships, from Rochelle…allies, they shot…then shadows…shadows fell…over all the battlefield, Brimir has forsaken Germania!" as he screeched that, Gunter stared with a bit of a nervous glance between the man and his commander, but was surprised to simply see a sigh.

"So, Gallia has a new sort of illusion magic ability, and they actually came with dragoons, and everyone panicked. Good to know that without us of the Pferdpanzer you can't do shit." As Albert replied that, Gunter was actually starting to believe it, but he shook his head.

"Commander, it would require an outstanding square-class mage of water and air to create such a refined illusion and to cover the entire battlefield…"

"Strange, since I recall that, from what our spies told us, Tristain held a Void user among its ranks, furthermore, lest I forget what the *Holy*," spit out like he was spewing dirt, "books say, ain't I right in saying that the Founder could do many things, least of which *To control the eyes of those who lacked faith, showing them nightmares and hell*?"

"I…I see." Gunter was still a bit unconvinced, but it did make him more at ease, as the messenger, on the other hand, having being severely shocked by what he saw, muttered:

"After the shadows, devils came near us, with big bat like wings, they slashed my group, I was wounded…"

"Yes, a feat that any wind mage, under an illusion that would terrify you, could do."

"We wounded them and they didn't bleed!" the messenger yelled back.

"ILLUSION PROVED! What more do you want to know?" Albert retorted once more.

At that, the messenger stood silent, and then, he began laughing.

"Oh…yes! You are right sir! Now I see it, I was just…afraid. It was all a dirty trick from those scumbags of Tristain!

"Good, go get some food, Gunter, go with him if you would." As he suggested that, Gunter smiled and nodding had the messenger follow him, in the meantime, Albert moved near the wounded dragon, and looked at the wound…yes, it had three points.

_So devils exist in this world. Damn. That, or there is some magic that throws air tridents. There are air blades and air hammers, why not also air tridents?_

As he thought about that, he grabbed one of the Pferdpanzer nearby, and ordered him to close all the students in their rooms, without fault, and then have everyone else prepare their horses, and to bring the elf too.

He moved, by himself, towards the stables, and once he had actually mounted his horse, he went back to the courtyard, where some of the Pferdpanzer already were in wait, and with a perplexed stare.

"Listen up: the army is routed because of some stupid illusion, which means that the real Tristain's force is going to come here soon, so grab your stuff, grab all the food you can, and then double speed towards Vindobona. NOW MOVE IT."

It took less than fifteen minutes, and once Tiffania had been safely *strapped* on his saddle, the Pferdpanzer corps left the Tristain magic academy, in a hurry, and, driving one more horse, was the Luftpanzer's messenger, since his dragon had been wounded he had to resort to a horse, and he was actually coming to appreciate how horses had no wings that flapped around, and went at a more calm pace.

"Sir." The voice came from Baras, who was galloping next to Albert.

"Yes Baras?" Albert yelled in order to be heard, as the wind against his face wasn't making it easy to understand, or be understood.

"If they have ships to fly, they will certainly intercept us along our way back!"

"Oh…you're right. Company! We move through Gallia's Alden Forest then to reach Germania!"

"Aren't we going to be at war with them?" Gunter yelled from behind him.

"The forest is pretty close to Tristain's and Germania's border, and frankly, I doubt they'll receive the declaration of war until we have moved through. If anyone prefers the ships, please say so!" Albert never thanked fate enough as that day, when he realized that without radios, and telephones, messengers had to deliver them by voice, and it would take far more time than five minutes to deliver a call.

With a new objective, the Pferdpanzer corps moved towards the Alden Forest, it would take them slightly longer, five days probably instead of two for going straight to the Germanian border, but better safe, than dead.

Up in the sky, a Crow smiled and turned his wings elsewhere.

***Desert of the Sahara- Somewhere in the middle of the dunes- Two days after the capture of the Capital-Night time***

"COME BACK HERE!" a fierce angered voice shrieked, only to get a set of howls as a reply.

"I can't believe it. Why do they have to act like that for just a couple of moons?" as Baron Sinfer Von Tereskian muttered that, the mummy lord next to him, Lord Amhotep the Fourth, shook his head.

"That is why…they shouldn't have been brought." His voice was slow, deep and extremely pissed at the fact that he was, indeed, the fourth mummy lord in that position. The first one had been destroyed by the first banshee. The second had been charred to death in the Fertek, due to a volcanic eruption of sorts. The third had been charred to death in the city of Nephthys, after an encounter with a pair of really fierce elves who had managed to secure some strange *fire stones* that still left many of the other mummies in shock. So now, he was the fourth mummy lord to have risen among his other bandaged comrades as their lord. Through a clear display of skill in rock-paper-scissor, he was deemed the winner. Only because he could actually move his hand with enough dexterity to make the *Dreaded* paper move.

"The Ruler's orders were absolute: Everything was to be brought. Depending on when we arrive, soon, everything will completely change, and when our ruler will reach God-hood, he will make, us rise above the ranks of undeath, and into true immortality."

"We are…immortal already."

"Maybe, but we can still die. As Demi-gods? As chosen ones? We'd have more power. We'd be stronger. Furthermore, it's been centuries since I last saw the sun's fiery gaze and it's starting to become a happy nostalgia." As the baron whispered that, he raised a hand, and the vampire's spawns swiftly moved forward, shining silver swords in hand, as they pummeled to unconsciousness several of the were-rats.

"One would think they'd be smarter than falling for a piece of cheese." A voice broodily muttered behind the Baron and the Mummy lord.

"Spoke the one who plays fetch with every *living being* his master points at." Sinfer replied with a bitter remark, turning his gaze to face the Ghoul-touched cryptlord, who was nothing more than a Ghoul, yet, stronger, meaner, and faster, an alpha among alpha, and extremely tough to kill. It would take a Banshee to do the job, which is why he despised banshees. Well, in general because they destroyed precious and rare tapestries, but more than that because the banshees were the pinnacle of slaughter. Sure, he could kill thousands by fighting a tough battle on a battlefield, the banshee? A wail and then poof, blood everywhere.

It was unnerving, a woman screams and everyone dies, unnerving and degrading, especially for him, who was known as the Baron of blood, and certainly not because he was able to magically make blood appear out of thin air.

"I do not play fetch! I kill and maim and slaughter." As the cryptlord pointed that out, he moved one of his rotted purple hands to his cheek, and muttered, "maybe, I also play fetch…I fetched these a couple of days ago actually." As he dashed off, he left behind two exquisitely tattered curtains.

This sent the Vampire Lord on a furious and beguiling set of curses the likes of which made the Mummy Lord hold onto his side of the head and remove his ears, to avoid hearing more.

"Sinfer," the voice spoke quietly, but it was all that was needed, to make the baron hush himself, and turn around, kneeling in front of Artos himself.

"My Ruler." The baron replied, while the mummy, who had removed her ears, and was staring in front of her, didn't register a thing.

"You should pass over your fetish of curtains Sinfer; really, it's a sad sight to see someone as old and powerful like you cry like a baby in front of tattered pieces of cloth, you should take example from the Ruler, he doesn't cry like a baby, and he has style, albeit a bit out of fashion."

"Amhotep…" Sinfer muttered, but the mummy had yet to turn or put his ears back into place and Artos had raised a hand to signal Sinfer to shut up.

"The ruler could use a change of style however, something like golden staves and rods, a set of bandages, why did he become a Lich and not mummy? Mummies are better: we pack a punch and we can still cast spells."

Artos moved a hand in front of him, and suddenly, the Mummy lord turned around, as if compelled to obey.

"M-My Lord!" as the mummy put his *ears* back into position, he kneeled down too.

"I am out of fashion?" Artos queried, with a distinct puzzled expression.

"N-No my Ruler!" the Mummy Lord said, as Sinfer had been ordered to keep quiet, he'd rather extend the *quiet* period till the wrath of his ruler was over.

"Good…I received a report that all went according to plan. Isn't that right, Gr.?" As he said barely two letters, a flicker of flames revealed the very same well-dressed gentleman in a tuxedo that had, some days before, made his good toll on souls in Tristain.

"Yes." The Devil muttered, "albeit I must remind you that I hate when you call me by using two letters that by no mean refer to my real name." as he muttered that, all he got back was a nice and warm smile from Artos.

"I'd never dare such a thing: we have a deal…right?"

"Yes…" as the Devil muttered that once more, with a slight angry tone underneath, he couldn't help but mutter some slight forgotten gods curses, as the only man capable of actually conning him had managed said feat not once, but twice.

"Then you will do as planned."

"Yes…"

"You may return to your troops…have the Horned and Ice devils arrived?"

"Yes they have indeed, the blood we collected was more than useful in opening up the portal to Baator, and the souls we captured were fresh and delicious and untainted by those guys up there." He sneered at his words, but kept speaking, "I must say, I felt for a moment your presence there, and I do not imagine things."

"Me? Are you sure? What would I do there?" Artos queried with a puzzled look.

"I do not know, but I know your shadows lost a couple hundreds of their spawns in the very brief moment I felt you there."

"Must have been a strange occurrence indeed." Artos replied nodding.

"I'm sure I won't pry anything from you, but be warned, Sfor: Try anything and once I get back, I *will* grab your damn rotten soul even if it means everyone, even the street urchins, to know my real name."

"You're not the first to make this threat, and you know full well what happened to the last guy who did." Artos replied with ease, and calm.

"How couldn't I? You smeared all the nine hells with his blood, and he was a damn arch-demon. Took ages to clean my windows." As the Devil chuckled on that, he turned and disappeared in the same flicker of flames from which he had come.

"There is no more resistance from here till our objective: the Gallian's plains." As Artos muttered that, he smiled as did the Vampire Lord and the Mummy Lord, and soon, a loud laughter erupted into the dunes of the desert, while down below, vampire spawns had finished putting the *mutts* back to sleep and in reinforced steel cages.

Behind them, ships that slowly moved on the desert sand like they were in the sea advanced, holding deep within their holds the answer to all the problems they were going to face in the upcoming week…

Artos couldn't help but feel pride. Five days at most. Five days, and everything, every single thing that he had done over his entire life, would be complete. He was so close. So close. All he had to hope for was that everyone else was doing his part.

"I'm going to hell, in a hand basket.

Well, at least I'll have a view.

But don't you worry, I'll save a seat for you." As he began whistling a happy tune he moved his hand forward and the army that wasn't on the ships, and was slowly resting behind the dunes, started moving once more.

***Agnes and Joanne – Gallian Border – Two days prior ***

The first thing Agnes had realized, once they had broken out of Tristania, in a seemingly easy way as they even had a damn wall fall down to reveal their exit, was that she was being used by someone, or something, she had no idea who it was, or why she had been chosen. Yet she knew she had no choice on the matter, she had failed the Queen, but most of all, she had failed herself, and her promise to die defending Henrietta. Now all she could hope for was that the Gallian's patrol guards actually recognized her as a political envoy from Tristain, and didn't query why her fellow traveller had been sleeping till then. More than sleeping, however, it was best to say paralyzed in a sleeping form. She breathed slowly, but she didn't seem to be weary of anything, at all, she simply stood there, if left on her feet, until a gust of wind would tumble her down. Agnes had to admit she had *played* a bit with her, during night camps, and yet she wouldn't get wounded, a thing which could prove useful if the captain of the musketeers ever actually needed a meat shield.

As she brought her horse to a halt, tightly holding onto the paralyzed form of the girl, she took a deep breath, as in front of her stood one of the Gallian patrols, it was do or break it.

"If you are another refugee from Tristain, please know that there is no room in the nearby city of Chantelier or Dartagnes," as the chief of the patrol said that, Agnes nodded, but then replied back.

"I need to find someone, actually. Someone who bears the symbols of a gauntlet and a sword, and I have to bring this girl to them…she's under a strange magic, that seems to keep her stopped, and paralyzed."

The patrol chief looked puzzled at such words, but one of the patrol guards whispered something to another, and then, receiving a nod, the guard moved forward to whisper something into the captain's ears.

"I see…you are seeking a believer of Heironeus, is it correct?"

"Yes!" Agnes replied nodding, maybe it would be easier than she thought.

"We were actually expecting someone. You should head to Beautis immediately: we will escort you along the road." As the captain of the patrol actually said that, Agnes realized this was taking a strange turn. Usually patrols wouldn't stop and change their routine like this, either the girl she was carrying was really important, or there was something completely different she was missing.

The other thought that crossed her mind was why they hadn't already called her a Heretic for seeking other heretics, these things were strange.

"I have to ask, is the cult of Heironeus branded as heretical, in Gallia?"

"No." the captain of the patrol replied, "apart the cults from the Evil Gods, the all good and neutral gods of the pantheon are prayed to."

"Come again?" Agnes replied.

"It was a recent change. Many saw the truth that Brimir never really existed, and so we found out that there were real gods out there. The Queen herself accepted such a thing, and made it clear that as long as no foul acts were committed, everyone would have freedom of cult. Next week, Brimir's churches have been all abandoned," as the captain said that, he pointed to a symbol of a cudgel on his armor, by his right shoulder, "long may St. Cuthbert, the Judge, bless us with his law."

"Long may he judge!" the rest of the patrol replied.

"I…see." Agnes replied biting her lower lips. She had been there, in the city of Londinium, when the new *cult* had been deemed heretic and burned, and now those very same *heretics* were bringing her to safety.

Nice irony, life.

For the two days of travel till the capital of Beautis, there was little to no talk about religion, Agnes didn't care and the patrol was busy on pushing their horses to their limits.

Agnes had never been in Beautis before, as she hadn't yet been promoted to captain of the musketeers guards when the previous Queen of Tristain had gone for diplomatic treaties into the capital city of Gallia. The capital was huge, to say the least, huge but without walls, who had been built only around the keep that lay at the center of the city, on top of a hill, as it was common practice to build castles and keeps where there would be a higher view of the plains around them. Yet, the city seemed to be bustling with life and excitement, even when the news of Tristain's fall had reached them, they didn't flinch nor fear, because they knew.

As the captain of the patrol had told her, knowledge was power: one does not fear that which he does actually know, and as such, when news that Tristain had fallen prey to strange shadows, all it had taken was the clerics of the good gods to go around speaking of what they actually where: Wraiths.

Sure, they would be powerful, but as of the moment, clerics had been keen on working with Ghost-Touch weapons, which would work and rend apart ethereal creatures like they were corporeal, or at least, that's what they kept on saying around the streets, and as Agnes and the Gallian patrol moved forward, she couldn't help but be surprised as they were heading towards the palace.

"There's a temple of Heironeus right there…why the palace?" Agnes queried, perplexed, as they passed a temple which, though strangely, seemed to have appeared out of thin air, as there was *half* a tree right next to it, and it simply looked like it had been *popped* into existence.

"The chief cleric of Heironeus is at the palace, planning a defense against the horrendous monster that is plaguing our world: Artos Basileus Sfor."

"I met him once, and he didn't seem evil, at all…yet…" Agnes replied, recalling back her last sight of the Queen, the last words of that strange man, and as she stayed there in a shocked silence, the patrol captain thought it was his turn to speak once more.

"He's worse than being an evil person: he is Evil, he is destruction and chaos given form, but worst, since he is extremely cunning and wicked… there is a history between him and the chief cleric of St. Cuthbert, who hails from the same world as him. If you wish, after you're done at the palace, you could go and meet him, to understand just how wicked a monster can be." As venom nearly dropped out of the man's voice, Agnes nodded in silence.

"He even fooled me." Agnes whispered, shaking her head, as she stared once more at the girl's face she was carrying in her arms, she had fiery red hair, but her eyes were closed, she couldn't have been more than fourteen years old, yet there she was, being paralyzed and carried around like a bag of potatoes, and she too had been literally pulled out of where she was, and pushed elsewhere. She couldn't help it, but really think that something was wrong, somewhere. Something was tearing at the back of her brain for recognition, for understanding, for enlightenment, but it didn't come out. She shook her head, nervously removing those thoughts: now she had to concentrate, she'd think about it later.

The palace guards by the garden's gates let them in without a fuss, and as Agnes dismounted, while nearing the palace's main entrance, she grabbed the young girl and waited, as the captain of the St. Cuthbert patrol dismounted swiftly and began moving in front of her.

The man brought her into a room, and muttered.

"Please, wait here, the chief of Heironeus will be here soon." As Agnes nodded, dropping the young girl onto the bed that the room had, the captain of the musketeers took out her gin flask, and, while slumping on a chair nearby, she slowly exhaled.

"For the queen." She whispered, as she took a deep sip of gin, "For Tristain," as she took another sip, "For my soul", and with that, she emptied the already half-empty flask.

"Damn, I'll need a refill." She muttered to herself, and as she dropped the flask on the small table, she heard a *slush* coming from the bottle.

"Huh?" puzzled, Agnes grabbed the flask once more, and, feeling it heavy once more, like if it were full, she looked inside, to see that indeed, it was filled with a clear crystal liquid.

She took a sip, but then made a frowned face, it tasted like alcohol, alright, but it packed a bigger punch than Gin, and yet it wasn't at all that intoxicating. Just what was it?

"Who cares." She muttered, she had practically done her mission, now she could just drink herself to oblivion now.

As she chugged onto the flask, she realized that the more she drank the more she felt happy. Everything was fine: there was no reason to hate someone as peace was the answer, peace, quiet, keeping it cool. As her emotions Calmed Down, somebody opened the door of the room, and a man, wearing the crest of Heironeus, entered the room, followed by the Queen of Gallia herself. Agnes reddened in slight embarrassment, before kneeling down, keeping her head low, and the flask quickly hidden back into the inner pocket of her jacket.

"Majesty," Agnes whimpered as she kept her gaze low.

"Please stand, present yourself and explain why you are here, envoy from Tristain." As the Queen spoke slowly, but with gentleness in her voice, Agnes explained. She explained of the last moment of the queen of Tristain, she explained, without delving into details, of how a strange man had appeared and had fooled them all, of how, seeing the battle turn for the worst once all hope had been crushed, the queen of Tristain had decided to accept a contract with the wicked being who had been sent there by Artos, of how she had been swiftly pulled away from the scene, only to be asked to grab the child by a man dressed in a white and golden armor with a flaming sword and then refer to the chief of Heironeus strange words, about Heironeus choosing her for her valor or things like that, of how she had found a way out of the city, a horse, and then of how she had managed to reach the border, and the patrol.

The chief cleric of Heironeus, a man with raven hair and clear blue eyes, moved close to the paralyzed girl, and stared at her for a moment, before nodding.

"This…is troublesome." He whispered, staring back at the queen of Gallia and at Agnes.

"What do you mean, Barthas?" the queen spoke, in a low soothing voice.

"I cannot free her, albeit I know what spell has been cast on her: she had been subjected to a Transfix spell, yet it has been modified in such a way that it is impossible for me to dispel it. Usually only when a specific condition is met then does the subject free himself, and furthermore it should the moment it exits the area where the spell has been cast, but in this case, it's on herself, and there doesn't seem a way out unless the condition is met."

"Who knows what the condition is?" the queen asked once more.

"The Transfixed, and she cannot speak to us. We would need to read her mind to understand what must be done." The chief cleric replied, tugging the young girl under the bed's sheets, before turning back to the other two woman, one still kneeled, the other looking with a saddened look.

"I see…she can stay here until we have solved our problems and you too are our guest, Miss Agnes." As the Queen spoke that, Agnes nodded.

"I thank you for your hospitability, your highness," as she whispered that, the Queen shook her head.

"There is no need to thank me, since it's all that I can do after the message."

"The message?" Agnes couldn't help but feel curious about it, and, as the Queen nodded, she spoke again.

"My daughter, Charlotte, has closed herself in her room for the past days, after hearing it. It was delivered by means of a black crow, who spoke to us in the middle of the throne room."

*Flashback-Two days prior*

Charlotte had been sitting composed, yet nervous, on the small throne next to her mother. She had pleaded her to help the magic academy and her friends, after having barely escaped on Sylphid the Pferdpanzer and the Luftpanzer corps, she had nervously stuttered and spoken to her mother in a fury, and even then, all that her mother could do was tell her to wait and see, as all the counselor had agreed to take time with Germania before giving a reply.

The result had been that just as the Germanian ambassador had arrived to grab a reply, a crow had flown inside from the open windows of the throne room.

The counselors, the queen, the ambassador, and even Charlotte, had stared at the crow, as it moved forward with small jumps, his glittering red eyes bloodshot. The point had been that once said animal had moved right next to the Germanian ambassador, it had grinned, if a crow can grin, and opening both her wings, it had, actually, assumed a more humanoid form.

A long black mantle covered the forms of what looked like a female, long dark brown hair descending towards her back, black feathers covering her where the mantle wasn't, her eyes red like the color of blood, in a moment, the guards had grabbed their wands, but had stopped when the crow had grabbed the ambassador with a smirk, and had then…delivered the message.

"Greetings! I bring a message from my master, Destroyer of Good, Reaper of Souls, wielder of Thunder and of Death Wings, the one and only King of Necros," at those words, Charlotte had widened her eyes, "Artos Basileus Sfor, Ruler of all those who shamble, crawl or move in the city of the dead, has an offer to propose: surrender and die, or die anyway, it doesn't matter." As she cackled that with a wide and evil grin, she swiftly added, as the guards had already started moving their wands, but had been stopped by the queen of Gallia, who took word.

"What type of fiend are you?"

"Why should I answer the question of one with a foot in the grave?" the crow woman replied.

"She's a familiar. A familiar to a man I know." At the source of the voice, the Crow cackled even more strongly, the Germanian ambassador scared that his knees gave in, but he was still held with strength unknown by the crow-monster.

"So it's you, Shilasil, you were the one chosen by St. Cuthbert," As the crow turned her gaze to the side, among the counselors, a man in armor, a mace in his hand, moved forward, the symbol of St. Cuthbert emblazoned on his chest, a harsh glare, short, cut blond hair, blue eyes, and the symbol of the god also on a chain that was around his neck. The most important feature, however, were his ears. They were elven.

"How old are you, Contemplative? Six-hundred? You were but a whelp when my master squashed the elves of Terenestia and made them run and cower in their forest."

"Just, why this message? My daughter spoke highly of Artos, and he even helped me…why would he now wish to kill me?" as she queried that, the crow cackled.

"It all was a ruse! A perfect plan, an unstoppable ticking of the cogs that moving make the lancet turn! All comes to an end, and in the end the gods *will* DIE…and you all will die with them."

_The gods will die._ That sentence, for a brief instant, sent the Queen on a puzzled expression, but then she calmed herself, nothing was going to happen, the gods were almighty and immortal. Yes, so why was her heart fluttering?

"You're lying!" Charlotte yelled with her wand out, clutched into her right hand, tears in her eyes.

"The poor missy is afraid, isn't she? Oh my, how much pain from the betrayed, the scorned, the used…it's just so good to feel it…" the woman whispered again.

"What is the real message, foolish crow? You angered us, your master wished for us angry. What is it, the truth?" Shilasil muttered, unfazed, as the counselor were actually considering charging straight against the crow-woman too.

"Calm, composed and calculative as always, Shilasil…well, very well! My master offers you a chance to parley the terms of your suicide. Bring your armies to the Gallian plains just outside of the forest of Alden, as I'm sure you'll know: you'll have one week from now to show yourself. Not a moment more. Come forth and face unspeakable doom, horrors and death, for there, you will have your answers." And then, without another word, the crow-woman slowly moved a step backwards, "Oh yeah, nearly forgot…" with a swift snap, the Ambassador from Germania fell down, dead, his neck snapped, and then the crow disappeared in a puff of smoke, just as a volley of spells from the guards signed the destruction of good part of the ambassador's body.

"Stop attacking!" The queen yelled, and as the guards did, Shilasil shook his head.

"We must call Germania and ask for her help immediately!" one of the counselors shrieked, only to be stopped by a single word, which came out hard, and dark.

"No." the word came from Charlotte herself, whose eyes had become cold as steel, like they were before getting her mother back, the feeling of being used and the feeling of being lied to.

"They won't help us, not after we killed their ambassador under truce." As to point that out, Shilasil nodded too.

"Precisely what he wanted: as always his skills in mind enchantment work greatly on the weak willed…"

"What do you mean by that!" another counselor yelled.

"The guards didn't attack because they felt the need to kill the crow, but because something stirred their emotion to a frenzied state, isn't that right?" as the elf muttered that, the guards stared at each other, before nodding.

"We just felt…angry at her. We wanted to see her destroyed."

"But…how?" the Queen asked, mouth agape.

"A familiar of a Wizard can cast spells that her master concedes her, and there are more powerful wizard spell that actually grant the familiar with spell-like abilities, imbue her with specific spells, and even worst, make them stronger than normal. A familiar of a strong wizard is strong…and the monster of undeath is a strong wizard." Shilasil explained slowly.

"So what do we do? It's clearly a trap! We can't go like that!" another counselor yelled.

"I do not know what he is planning, but precisely because it's a trap, we need to go there." Shilasil replied.

"What? Have you gone mad? I knew we shouldn't have trusted an elf!" another counselor yelled, only to get a shaking of the head from Shilasil in reply.

"If we do not go, then someone else, will, right?" as he queried that, his eyes moved to Charlotte, who had, indeed, risen from her throne.

"I will go and speak with him myself with an army or not. If that's true then I *will* fight him for the truth!" as she yelled that, Shilasil sighed.

"We could trap her here, an easier feat than going against the strength of Artos, but the more we wait, the stronger he gets. For every living thing he kills, his army grow." Holding strongly onto the symbol of St. Cuthbert, he muttered:

"Furthermore, if I know him, Germania will enter the fray too. He killed their ambassador, so as we speak, I'm sure someone, somewhere, is convincing the Germanian's emperor to march to us, through the Alden forest…wherever you want to, or not, war will end up in Gallia, and to minimize casualties you will have to fight there."

The counselors went into an uproar, demanding the state of calamity, solutions, or yelling for some sort of godly intervention.

At that moment, the queen spoke…

*End of flashback*

"…and that is why I chose to wage war in the Alden forest." The queen of Gallia finished speaking, earning herself a look of surprise from Agnes, who was trembling.

"With your words of Tristain's capital fall, it just confirms the fact that we must stop this before they can step into Gallia, we will have no choice but to split our troops evenly, and hope that Germania sees reason during the parley…we do have an advantage however: we know what the enemy is and what he has rolled in his sleeves…at least, most of it. We can win this." The Queen replied, sure of her words.

"…Why would he accept the parley and not kill you all there?" Agnes queried.

"The Queen won't go alone." Barthas replied, "A cleric of every good god will go too, and since we have been chosen from the main plane specifically, we *will* at the very least, be able to stall him or wound him, and Shilasil will help us, as he has battled the fiend many time."

"The elf? I never thought I'd see the day where elves and humans would put their differences aside." Agnes whispered, "Still, an elf on our side wouldn't be bad." Considering how powerful they were.

"I'm afraid Shilasil is not one of our *elves* he comes from another plane of existence" Barthas replied, before adding, "still, he received a vision from Corellon Lathian, the god of the elves, stating that more of his kinsmen would come and aid the strength of Gallia at the forest of Alden. Which is another reason why we must *go*."

"This is all so strange…" Agnes muttered, "And what does being the chosen of Heironeus actually mean?"

"It means that probably the man who saved you was the avatar of the god of valor himself, and he has deemed you worthy enough to be his shield and sword in the coming battle." As Barthas muttered that, he stared with a kind smile at the musketeer.

"Why?" Agnes asked genuinely surprised, "I'm a commoner."

"It does not matter in the eye of the gods, keeping to your standards I was born a commoner too…Cleric's magic is not stolen from the Weave or molded from the arcane energies, it is granted onto us by the gods themselves in exchange for our faith and our prayers."

"But I never prayed to Heironeus before." Agnes answered back, puzzled.

"You acted with valor in your fight and in the defense of your country and of your queen, and you never gave up, arising from commoner to captain of the musketeers... that alone is a sign of devotion."

"It's like claiming that drinking water pleases the water drinking god. Why hasn't he taken me as a follower then?" Agnes retorted back, maybe a bit angrier in her tone than she wanted to be, but still.

"I understand your anger, but the will of the gods is such that everything is done to turn out better than it was before. If Heironeus chose you, then it means you are destined to do great things."

"I'm a failure of a bodyguard, how can I do great things?" Agnes exclaimed, and at that moment, the queen of Gallia muttered.

"Everyone has inside of him greatness, Agnes. When the gods' first clerics appeared, my counselors told me I should squash the heresy to Brimir with no remorse, to avoid angering the pope, that those gods were nothing but demons and evil doers. When magic from the gods was shown to be available to anyone who believed in them, the nobles were in an uproar, claiming it would destroy the natural powers of the country. Still, I did nothing, because I felt it was the right thing to let the people decide its own ruler: if they didn't want me, then I'd have been more than happy to leave and go back to the Des Orniers mansion together with my daughter. Instead they chose me." Slightly smiling, the queen whispered once more.

"I thought I wouldn't have been able to keep being a queen, I was never more than the wife of the rightful king after all, yet, they chose me, because they saw I could be a good queen, and I managed: greatness is not something you are born with, but it's something you can achieve. That is why you shouldn't think of a single failure as a sign that you are a failure. Life is filled with failures, Agnes: it is how we pull through them that mark us as great."

Agnes stared at the Gallian queen for a while, and then, silently, nodded.

***La Rochelle***

Louise couldn't believe her luck: she was seeing the port city of La Rochelle right in front of her! That was it!

_S: Just in the nick of time too, we were down to the last windstone._

_B: You should just try to gently land the ship._

_L: Yes!_

Louise giggled, as she moved a hand, while sending through her mind the orders to her skeletal friends to start the descent procedures. The flying ship would probably crash, as after all she wasn't going to come back and keep it afloat. The only reason she had decided to go with landing was that her friends, especially Janson who was such a quiet guy, yet so nice to her, could disembark safely.

_L: You know…I was thinking of asking Janson out._

_B: Why would you do that?_

_L: He's my friend, and once you get past his rotting skin, I'm sure he's a kind guy...and I need to get over Arty's death._

_S: I am not hearing this._

_B: Come back here this instant you!_

_L: What? Why shouldn't I?_

_B: Well, for once, he doesn't feel emotions._

_L: He's always there to console me and stop me from harming myself._

_S: That's just because you ordered him to protect you from all type of harm._

_B: He's got no will of his own, Louise. _

_L: WHAT! No! I'm going to prove it to you!_

_B: You're just going to hurt yourself._

Louise clenched her fists and moved closer to her friend.

_S: Here comes the pain._

"Janson," as Louise muttered that, the zombie turned around, after all, his master had called him by the appellative she generally used when referring to him, so it was clear the master wanted something.

"Would you like to go out with me?" as she asked that, blushing, she just realized how far she had gone from being the pink haired girl that would have rather hit something or someone rather than directly state her emotions.

All she got in reply however was nothing. Janson stared at her in silence.

"Oh…you can't talk…that's right."

_S: Law of misunderstandings, fifty gold coins._

_B: Not betting on this._

_V: Law of what?_

_L: Oh you…_

"Well then, nod if…" The master had told him to nod, so he nodded.

"I didn't even finish speaking! Would you go out with me? Nod if…" he nodded again.

"So you'd go out with me? Th-Thank you." She muttered, "We're landing so…would you come with me?" the master gave him an order, albeit subtly, he followed through the master's intention of having him tag along, so he moved next to the master.

_S: TOLD YOU!_

_B: You've got friends on the other side…_

_V: …I'm not going to question this._

_L: You're all just jealous I got a date!_

_S: I…not even in my worst days as a Necromancer I did a thing like that._

_B: Me neither, really._

_L: You think he's not my type? Are…are you sad I didn't pick one of you?_

_S: I'm off limits. Basileus here is the free guy._

_B: I am *not* interested._

_V: I don't mind mistress position._

_S: No, trust me, no._

_V: I'll make you change your mind, skully_

_B: Skully?_

_S: …I'm off._

_V: Nooooo come back my skully!_

_L: *Giggle*_

Louise giggled for no reason, as she set foot down on the dock, and, after a quick disembark of her friends, which now accounted for well over thirty-eight skeletons and *her* Janson, all with the clothes they wore in life, she began marching through the city, kind of hoping to see someone, some sign of life. Instead, there was no-one. The city was completely, and utterly, empty.

Not a sign of life in the entirety of the port city.

_S: HIDE FROM UNDEAD, NOW!_

Louise whispered the words of the spell in a hurry, and the next moment, when wraith appeared from the ground and from the walls of the buildings around her, they twirled for a bit, and then, satisfied, returned to dilly-dallying elsewhere.

_B: That was close._

_L: What were those things!_

_S: Wraiths, shadows, a type of undead that is ethereal, sucks strength, useful to weaken a foe before delivering an attack, but requires to be kept in cloudy conditions at best, and refuses to stay too much out in the sun._

_L: If they come from your plane, why are they here?_

_B: Usually they are used by Vecna cultists or Nerull cultists. _

_L: I see. They must have emptied the city then…what are we going to do now?_

_S: We should leave the city before the spell falters, your friends are fine though, so order them to grab cloaks to hide themselves, and go look for food, quickly._

_L: Yes!_

The first stop she made was luckily a short one: being La Rochelle a port city, bars and pubs littered the entirety of the dock area, finding inside of said pubs bottles of wine and food wasn't a problem, and considering it wasn't even spoiled, Sfor muttered in her ear about how the attack had to be a recent thing, not more than two-three days, as some milk had just then started to rot.

"Well, it's still edible." As Louise happily took a sip from some stew that had been left on the bottom of a cauldron, she turned around. She had thought she had heard a noise of some sort.

"Must be my imagination," she thought. Until that noise repeated itself. It was like a dull, repeating sound.

_B: I heard this type of noise before though._

_L: Where?_

_S: I did too…oh yes, Demons drums!_

_B: Louise, leave the city: Demonic army following suite._

_L: B-but I wanted to rest!_

_S: Leave now or die._

Louise pouted, but as the dull sound of the drums grew louder, so did she quickly leave the city, with her *troops*, as there were no horses around, all she could do was summon a Mount and start galloping, hoping her *army* would keep the step. They actually didn't, but they didn't need to rest so, while she could pause for a few hours of sleep, they would reach her, awake her, and then they would proceed.

"There's just one thing I'm worried about." Louise muttered, while she looked at the road in front of her, not seeing a single sign of life for miles.

_S: What?_

"What if…the cultists have killed the queen? What if there is *no* queen? What should I do if I failed the rule of steel? Mother would be angry, definitively angry." Louise muttered, shivering slightly.

_S: Louise, do you want to know a little secret?_

_L: You'd tell me one of your secrets?  
S: Yes! You earned it!_

_L: Fine by me! I'll pinky swear not to reveal it!_

_S: You are far stronger than your mother, trust me. _

_L: You're making me blush…really?_

_B: Yes, I must admit that with a combination of accelerando plus explosion, you'd probably be able to level a battlefield without as much as breaking a sweat._

_L: I didn't know…thank you._

_S: For what?_

_L: For believing in my strength._

_B: Aw…_

_S: Oh, well, Bread to bread, wine to wine._

Much calmer, Louise kept riding with a small grin, on the well-travelled, but deserted road, towards Tristania.

"The academy of Tristain is on the way, so we should first stop there…Kirche and Tabitha are going to be so…worried about me." Louise giggled.

_S: Yeah, I'm sure they will be._

***Survived Elves - Minus Three days to Parley ***

Bidashal, lord of Nephthys, the conquered city, the destroyed city, was on the run, together with a meager number of elves, in which his niece, Luctiana, and her fiancé, Ari, were at the moment discussing the best course of action.

"Alhambra city is the first step into the Gallian lands, they will never let us through by talking, and we are too many to pass undetected!" Ari exclaimed bewildered, as he received a sympathetic look from Bidashal.

"It's our only hope. We have been on the run for more than four days now, night and day we have walked in the sand, leaving behind some rear-guard of valiant heroes who decided to sacrifice themselves so that we could live." As Bidashal replied that, a sad guilt took over his face. Men, good men, had volunteered for this form of ultimate sacrifice, just so that more could possibly survive. He was sure that while stalling had worked, it certainly wouldn't have stopped that strength, and that power of evil.

Still, Bidashal had no other choice. It was either going towards the Gallians or towards those of Rub al Khali, and the latter had technology far more powerful than the first, which could, yet again, reduce their numbers greatly. In this way, on the other hand, he would be able to easily protect at the very least the few children and women who were either too frail or too old to fight. Elves lived long lives yet he couldn't help but think that humans had the easiest deal out of all of them. They didn't need to see centuries pass upon them, the changes of nature upon the mighty mountains or the shallow creeks turning into rivers, they didn't hear the spirits of nature scream when unholy spawns appeared and tortured them with the use of horrible and evil magic. The worst thing was that it wasn't even related to the Shaitan. It had to be something else. It _had_ to be something else and probably, it was even stronger. Not even when the power of the Shaitan had been used, had they lost their capital, and yet now, now they were on the run with few others.

He felt he had betrayed the ideals and the hopes of every elf that had died for his lands in the past thousands of years. Still, he couldn't give up.

"I'll get to see humans and their culture…but I would have hoped not at this cost," Luctiana muttered to herself, more than anything, as Ari gave her a saddened look.

"Maybe, you know, we could get married right now." Ari suggested.

"A marriage on the run? No thanks smart boy. Wait till we are all safe once more, then, you can actually start to think about it." Luctiana replied.

"My lord!" an elven scout that had been sent ahead yelled from his dragoon, the poor animal badly dehydrated and in dire need of food, yelled as he flew back, letting his dragon come down to rest, and handing over his share of food and water to the beast, who, while not feeling sated in the least, still nuzzled against his rider.

"What is it, Moses?" Bidashal replied, raising an eyebrow.

"The castle of Alhambra, they have a white flag, and there's an elf atop the walls! He gestured at me to come closer!"

"It might be a trap, you didn't go, did you?" as Bidashal asked that, Moses sheepishly reddened.

"You actually went." Ari commented with a matter of fact tone of voice.

"Anyway! His name is Shilasil, and he said that Corellon Lathian, a god, spoke of us to him! He offered us shelter as long as *the guy with the long quirky eyebrows and the strange wide-trimmed hat with a plume* went to speak with him earnestly."

The *long quirky eyebrows* of Bidashal twitched, as his *wide-trimmed hat* that wasn't, at all, strange, actually moved because of a vein on his forehead bulging with a steady rhythm.

"I see…then I will take your companion for a swift mean of travel…if we can avoid bloodshed, why not?"

As soon as he finished talking, the Dragoon, quite happily, obliged and with a couple of powerful moves of his proud white wing, he began flying earnestly towards Alhambra castle.

The castle, when it first came into view, ten minutes or more later, had a white flag holstered, and a man, no, an elf, waving at Bidashal. The Lord actually descended to a more apt level, inquiring.

"Are you Shilasil?" he asked, with a puzzled expression.

"It is I, chosen of St. Cuthbert, you must be Lord Bidashal. We must hurry and tend to your people, we don't have much time, and I'm afraid this meeting needs to be quick too."

"You were expecting us." Bidashal pointed out the obvious.

"Yes, the god of elves, Corellon Lathian, knew of your situation, and warned me, even though I belonged to another god's faith, so that I could warn you: the monster you fought is one all to known to me, and even though you are now tired, I must ask an enormous favor for you, for the benefit of all of Halkeginia, and for everyone, every single living being." As he muttered that, Bidashal stared at him with narrowed eyes, he didn't know what to make of it, but the elf in front of him was actually an elf, and he didn't seem to be lying. Still, he spoke of a god of elves, one he had never heard before.

"Why should I believe in you?"

"You don't need to. We simply offer you shelter, but you must understand this: if we do not unite against this threat…it will be our doom, the doom of everyone. He is a powerful undead, master of undeath itself, and nothing, short of annihilating him completely, will prevent him from capturing this plane for his will. He however committed a terrible flaw in his plan: He told us where to meet him, so we know he has planned a trap for us there…as we are speaking, the Gallian army has begun, together with faithful of other religions, to scan the forest of Alden, looking for glyphs and strange magic, and will dispel anything it finds there. Then, we will do the exact opposite, and use the traps against him…"

"You are planning a nice ruse…but why should we be a part of it?"

"Because he will not be alone; you saw his army, if you are on the run, and I'm going to ask you everything you saw about it, because we need to know his real strength to fight him off more aptly, but more importantly, they do not eat as we living do: if they conquer, they turn the soil to ashen lands, or barren, until nothing grows on it anymore. On that ground, cursed and corrupted, they are even stronger…"

"I still wonder how you managed to avoid being branded a monster by the human." Bidashal muttered, looking at the guards nearby, who all had strange symbols etched on them, but still looked nervous.

"Brimir isn't a god, it has been shown and demonstrated, thus when the real words of the real gods came to them they understood the evil in their actions and therefore enabled actual reforms in their laws, making them more effective." As Shilasil spoke, Bidashal's eyes shot forward in stupor.

"Demonstrated?" he muttered.

"Yes, the feats that we alone, as cleric of real gods can do have proven who is actually worthy of belief, and who isn't."

Bidashal shook his head slowly, taking in everything he had been told till then, and then muttered.

"If my people will be safe, those who wish to help will be granted permission."

"It is fine; Corellon Lathian knew he would receive this answer from you."

"How can I thank him?" albeit Bidashal had doubts he could actually thank a god.

_You already did, youngster,_ replied a swift, male voice that echoed slowly through the wind that had suddenly acted up near his ears.

"Oh."

***Germanian Court – Minus Three days to Parley***

"It was your fault for such a disgrace of our might!" Albrecht yelled, half clothed and half covered in oil, as he had swiftly reached for his throne, his belly wobbling under the vast amounts of fat and skin that feasts and banquets had made him acquire. The guards, who had the duty to protect him were all to the sides of the throne room, nobles actually standing behind the guards, in order to avoid becoming the target of the emperor's wrath too.

General Handenburg stood there, silently, kneeling down to the emperor, in the throne room, where from the ceiling hung the heavy iron chandelier of Germania, forged in steel and who was lit by never-ending flames. The ex-king of Gallia was right it seemed, about what the Emperor would have had to say, and also about how it would have ended.

"I will have you punished for such a cowardly action! What excuses could you have! Shadows? Strange devils and demons? Illusions! Clearly a cowardly tactic which wouldn't have worked had I put somebody with more balls at your place! You disgust me." As the emperor kept spatting out words after words of bile and hate, Handenburg said nothing.

"You do have a daughter…right?" at that question, Handenburg turned pale.

"She's no more than ten, your Highness," the general pleaded.

"She can grow up to be a fine beauty then." At those words, however, Handenburg did something that him having been trained on loyalty and order, would never have thought about before: he planned a coup.

"Hextor." He whispered.

"What was that, General?" the Emperor moved a bit closer to where the general was kneeling.

"Hextor." He whispered once more.

"I'm not sure I understand you, and this is borin…"as he moved closer, he stopped, looking upwards as he could see the chandelier creaking, its steel frame deforming like under some sort of invisible strength.

"HEXTOR!" as the general yelled that once more, a loud *thunk* was heard, and the chandelier, the bright and reputed to be eternal chandelier, fell down with a loud crash, smashing into a pulp the emperor, right in front of where General Handenburg was.

_Kneel to no-one but me, The God of Tyrants!_

Handenburg stood up, fiercely, as the guards looked in awe at such a sign, as did the various nobles who, for once, didn't know what to do. The general moved slowly, aiming at the throne, but as he was about to make the first step onto the small set of marble stairs that led to the actual throne, the chamberlain moved forward.

"This…this cannot…" a flicker of the wand later, the chamberlain was charred on the floor, as Handenburg sat down on the throne, a smirk on his face.

"Bow to your emperor, or be destroyed by the might of HEXTOR!" as he yelled that, fury ablaze in his eyes, the guards kneeled, as did some of the nobles, those who didn't, and had already their wands out, were bewildered when a set of crossbow bolts parted them from their own lives, and a small voice appeared behind the throne of the newly nominated emperor.

"The Assassins of Nerull, the Reavers of Erythnul, the spies of Vecna, the necromancers of Wee Jas and the mercenary of Hextor will help you…but you will wage war on Gallia..." As he whispered, the voice soon faded away.

Handenburg stood up, his fists clenched.

"AS I DICTATE, SO IT WILL BE!" he roared, making the guards and the nobles who hadn't died whimper even more in fear.

"Everyone will march towards Gallia! There we will defeat the army of an enemy that has placed upon its throne a queen unworthy of the title! A queen…"

"That has killed the ambassador." A voice whispered into his ears.

"That has killed OUR ambassador!"

"That was married to a not chosen son of the king." Another voice whispered again.

"That was married to an unworthy son who was not chosen by the king!"

"We have the right for war!" a third voice whispered.

"We have the right for war and we will crush them, through the power of HEXTOR, ERYTHNUL, VECNA, WEE JAS and NERULL!"

As the speech was finished, the royal court simply bowed to the orders in fear, and dashed to obey at the best of their abilities.

The news spread thorough the entirety of the country like a fire set ablaze into a tar pit, and soon the soldiers who had survived had no choice but obey the new orders, that, or face the wrath of strange mercenaries, that overruled their captains with their strange marks of fists breaking arrows, and any dissent was quelled by silent daggers in the night, with the very graves being turned and undead rising to bolster their numbers, and mages that didn't cast with wands appearing with robes and wearing a strange symbol of a red grinning face, many in the army feared to simply walk line in line, and they couldn't wait for the battle, just so that death could free them from the fear they were feeling deep within themselves: fear of being fighting with something completely alien to them, something like stronger forces that pulled and scourged at them, strengths so mighty that they couldn't, at all, understand them, but yet they moved. Yet they moved because so it was.

***Tristain's magic academy- some hours after the *strategic recollocation* of the Pferdpanzer***

"I need to go!" Fouquet screeched, as she got herself on one of the remaining horses, "they have Tiffania, and I will not leave them with my sister!" and then she actually galloped, without letting anyone else in the courtyard voice his or hers opinion.

"Well, *we* need the carriage to go back to our estate, or what remains of it, to warn father or at least to find him." As the eldest Eleonore, spoke so, she grabbed ahold of the reins of the carriage, and with Cattleya literally pulled next to her, they departed.

The Headmaster sighed, as he looked over the remaining nobles who still had to be sent away and back to their families. Everyone was afraid, and didn't know what to do, or when to do it. The only one who seemed less afraid of the others was Guiche de Gramont. Who simply stood gently patting Belldandy's head, without as much as a care in the world, actually staring at his familiar with empty eyes.

"Mister Gramont, I like your calm in this storm that has befallen us, everyone should take example from him!" as the Headmaster said that, to calm the situation, Guiche smirked, and replied.

"I wouldn't want that: after all, they'd be following the example of someone who has lost all of his family and honor."

"What do you mean?" Osman queried back, puzzled.

"The Germanian ran from Tristania, because of an illusion cast by a void mage, but Louise is missing by far more time than that, and had she been brought to Tristania, it wouldn't have taken much from the queen to warn her family. So it wasn't an illusion, Louise wasn't in Tristania, and my family had been tasked to go to La Rochelle to get aid with ships, from my father to my eldest brother, so tell me, with *reinforcement ships* unloading shadows, should I hope for my parents to be alive and controlling demons, or for them to have died in the line of duty?" as Guiche muttered that, a nervous silence descended in the courtyard, for one long minute, nobody said a word.

Then the screams began as everyone tried to grab the nearest horse or carriage, some actually starting to dash off in the street in a general direction that wasn't towards the capital.

**Author's notes**

**Sheesh, these chapters…they keep GROWING on me.**

**Anyway, yes, the elf was called Moses. I had to resist the urge of making the elven survivors sing "Deliver us", though I couldn't simply resist the Humor part of the story after all.**

**(remember this is both humor and drama)**

**To clarify time tables:**

**Eventually (d-uh) everyone will reach the forest of Alder either in the same day or by night. Start thinking from that and consider that *two days prior* usually happen together. Most of the time.**

**°to Anon: Thanks…I guess? *happy smile***

***to J. Palmgren: *Crashing* wouldn't be the term, it was just *bound* to happen. The only thing missing in the ancient dragon *tm* of doom, oh, and the Romalian side.**

**First one to correctly guess where the real battlefield of doom *tm* will be, earns a cookie.**


	16. Final Destination :Pardon the pun: END

**Last Chapter: Well then, I hope you liked the long trek. This last chapter is the ending, in the *Finale* you may read the full explanation, and furthermore consider that what other characters think is not what the truth is. I don't know how many actually thought of how the ending was going to go… **

Chapter sixteen

There they were.

There he was.

As he stood, smirking, in that precise spot, the point where everything would change, he couldn't help it, he had to smirk. He had to smile, and it took all his self-control to avoid starting to laugh out maniacally.

Artos Basileus Sfor stood on a hill, staring at the landscape in front of him. The ships that had rolled on the harsh sands of the Sahara were now slowly starting to float upwards, their flags black and the clouds up above starting to condense and become grimmer by the minute. He could hear his wizards chant the long winded spells to change the weather, to allow for the Vampires to have reign, and to strengthen his troops, he could hear the music of the dirgesingers raise the power of the arcane energy scourging through the dead's bodies.

He could smile just at the thought of how it was going to end. He could, but instead he moved his line of thought elsewhere. Staring at his right, where the Mummy Lord was, and then at his left, where the Banshee was.

"I want no mistakes." He muttered, with a simple yet effective tone, as on that precise day, everything had to work like a clock.

*Gallian side*

The army had been pushed to the limit of speed just to get there before the specified time. Once there, the clerics had gone in front, searching for the obvious traps and doing their best to disarm them, although they still did suffer casualties, while within acceptable limits, it also scared the army, reducing their morale, as some of the traps had literally incinerated hundreds, while others had brought life to the very plants to attack them, and fighting off a giant tree with a puny steel sword isn't just the same as hacking into a living orc or human, at least the latter two bleed.

Furthermore, what had shocked them was that there was a table straight in the middle of the plain, with chairs. Every chair had the symbol of a deity, plus there was the symbol of Gallia, of Germania, of Albion and of Tristain, at the head of said table, stood the chair with the symbol of Necros.

Obviously no-one would have been that stupid to sit on a chair, at a meeting with the ruler of Necros, but still, they had double-checked, finding that the entirety of the chairs, and table, were but simply wooden furniture, with no hidden meaning nor hidden thing. This just served to make the Gallian's cleric even more uncomfortable, extremely more, to say the least.

"Your Highness," Agnes felt a tinge of guilt, as she spoke those words to another queen, but also a bit of pride regained, as she wouldn't fail this queen, never.

The Gallian's queen looked at the ex-captain of the musketeers, now sword of Heironeus, who was wearing a shining armor made of polished steel, and wielding a sword that, the chosen of Heironeus had sworn, would be able to cut through anything except Adamantium, the very same metal that had forged it.

"Agnes, no need to be so stiff: today is an extremely important day for everyone: we must give the example, and keep a cool demeanor." As the queen of Gallia spoke, Agnes nodded, looking at how Charlotte herself was patting, trying to hide her nervousness, Sylphid, and was finishing putting on her a thin metallic armor.

"Will the princess Charlotte participate into battle?" Agnes queried, worried.

"She insisted on being the fastest: if something goes wrong, she will hurry to rescue as many as she can from the table." The queen of Gallia replied softly.

"Though I hope nothing happens, as a Queen, but also as a mother, I know she will give her all in this battle." She added, looking with a glint of pride at her daughter.

"She'd have a twin too…but the monastery in which she was hidden…is no longer…"

"She doesn't know?" Agnes queried, to which the Queen shook her head.

"Then there's no need to have her suffer, is there?"

"You are right." The Queen spoke slowly, as time slowly began passing, the Queen started to think that all the King of Necros was waiting was for the rain to actually turn into a downpour...

"Agnes…when do you…" but her words were cut short, by the appearance, in the middle of the clearing, of the Wizard himself, just as the Germanian's ambassador had emerged from the forest, a horseman had reached from the sides of the clearing, the evil gods clerics had appeared once more, and ... that was all.

"Seems he got us all where he wanted us," Agnes muttered, as she looked at the figure on the horse getting down swiftly, and charging straight at another man, the Germanian's ambassador, just to see him too take his wand out, but then, as if on cue, both wands were taken into the hands of the King of Necros, who seemed to chuckle and invite them both with hand gestures, same thing for the Queen of Gallia.

"Time to go and parley then." The Queen of Gallia whispered, tugging onto her vest as she mounted a horse to get neared, followed by Agnes.

*Germanian's side*

They'd have to traverse the Alder forest, which they knew was trapped, heck they were sure about it, as Vecna's spies had informed the higher ranks of the army, and as such the Hextor cultists had pulled back their troops, letting the Necromancer of Wee Jas to do their jobs: send in skeletons, get more corpses, send in more skeletons. The graveyards of the nearby Germanian cities had been emptied, after all the conscription notice issued was for the living…and the dead.

The first skirmishes, and the relative warnings to the sides, began as the first drops of rain started falling on the forest.

General Handenburg…no, Emperor Handenburg remained at the palace, to get crowned, and everything else. Thanks to the clerics, who could deliver messages through great distances by a simple use of a spell, he had learnt of the Pferdpanzer retreat from the Magic Academy, and, realizing he would have lost them never the less, had granted his loyal subordinate, Albert Von Riktofen, with the charge of General, having him act in the way he saw best: Have them surrender with no bloodshed, or have them utterly annihilated.

Albert stood watching over the maps of the area, and mumbling something about fighting in a forest with fire and fire spells and starting forest fires with the rain.

"Do we have oil?" he queried.

"Maybe two barrels at most." Came as the reply from the supply officer, who felt relieved when he heard just *who* was going to be their general. Usually, he'd feel distaste at being under a born commoner, but between him, and the other candidates…he'd gladly lick Albert's boots anytime. Some things the other did was just…plain wrong.

"Catapults?" he queried once more.

"None, we had to travel fast and lightly." The supply officer replied.

"Building one?" he queried.

"Weeks," the officer replied once more. This was a battle, not a siege where weeks was an acceptable time, he'd just have to man up and send his men straight through, that's what he'd do. Still, if he had done that they'd have already died by the traps, so the supply officer was glad he wasn't the one in charge.

"…Building one?" Albert queried, watching one of the clerics of Nerull, who simply unnerved him to no end.

"Hours." The reply came slowly.

"Have one built before nightfall." The cleric nodded, and left the room.

"Now, I know you're listening, so come out and speak." Albert spoke slowly, but clearly and with confidence in the room where only he and the supply officer seemed to be, now, alone.

Thoughts of lost sanity crossed the supplies officer's head, before a shadow actually emerged from the corner of the room, to reveal the Ex-King of Gallia.

"How did you know?" he queried, a bit…curious.

"I didn't. I was hoping on the Vecna cultist actually." As he said that, turning around with a grin, and looking in the other corner, he got a reply with a chuckle, as from said corner the Vecna cultist actually emerged.

"Fine, how did you know I was there?"

"It's a secret." Albert replied with a really wide grin, which sent a sour face on the Vecna's cultist.

"But I'll exchange it gladly for another one." He replied, "A really easy one too…I just want to know what the color of your underwear is."

The cultist's face turned angry, as *it* being a she, she was already half-way through slapping him, when she stopped, and muttered barely.

"Black,"

"Oh…I suppose they're even lacey! Well, to reply…I didn't, but since you get the habit of appearing from shadows, I took an educated guess, and one shadow was already taken by the king of Gallia so…"

Joseph chuckled, he actually liked the man!

To like someone after so much time! He should have made a treaty with Germania and the evil Gods years before!

The Vecna cultist's face turned red and her face contorted because of the anger she felt, but kept quiet, biting her lower lip.

"Now, if I presume correctly, your grace King Joseph…" as Albert turned to Joseph, he saw a dismissal hand wave.  
"Please, call me Joseph and nothing more…" the ex-king of Gallia replied.

"As you wish…well then, Joseph, I was told you were a *Void* mage, correct?" as Albert queried that, Joseph nodded.

"I know the spells *Accelerando* which requires no casting time, but consumes a lot of willpower, as well as a spell called *Explosion*, the first makes time nearly stop, and makes me act really fast. The second on the other hand creates small scale explosions." As Joseph swiftly explained that, Albert nodded.

"Then I might have a plan for a fight in the forest." A thunder blasted up in the air, followed by the swift falling down of a downpour.

"I hate rain." Albert muttered once more.

"I hate rain too," replied a female voice, whose user walked into the tent, her black feathers and her red shot eyes showing her off as a strange crow hybrid.

"You're Artos' familiar." The cultist of Vecna stated.

"And you were the play toy of the Vizir of Salem, until my master killed yours." The crow replied bitterly, making the Vecna cultist clench her fist harder.

"Now, you are formally invited, blablabla, to take part into the possible peace and suicide treaty or war and suicide plan. No exchange. No coming back for refunds. You either accept or you do not. If you do, just go through the forest to the other side, there's a table, some chairs, and there it isn't raining." Albert raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'll go. Though you think you're going to leave?" snapping his finger in Joseph direction, who nodded, using Accelerando to swiftly stab with his sword the crow, only for the wand to pass through the crow, leaving it unscathed.

"Sheesh, you actually tried to kill me quickly, instead of talking to me for hours and hours, about how you weren't afraid and the like, and you actually don't give a damn about the all ambassador thing...my master is going to like killing you slowly." As the Crow said that, and was about to leave, Albert yelled out:

"Tell your master that I enjoy roasted crow for a snack during parleys!"

After the crow completely disappeared, the supply officer looked at the general with a perplexed look.

"Are we really going to surrender?"

"Am I an idiot?" Albert queried back, looking puzzled at the idiocy of the man chosen for being a supply officer.

"Have the catapult aimed at the damn location where the meeting is: there are damn chairs and all and if a wind mage can't see them then he'd better be ready to have his eyes carved out, then, when I give the signal, fire the oils, have a fire mage launch something fiery against it, and Joseph can use Accelerando to pull me out. There. Problem solved. Sheesh."

Joseph…simply chuckled, that was a low blow even for his standards…effective, but low.

"What about our side of the clerics?" the Vecna cleric queried.

"Hey, you're the cleric of the god of secrets honey, not me. If you want I'd suggest your god drops you and call me on for favors, since you can't seem to get just how much of a boon you can get out of…the other god's cleric right now…get it?" as soon as he finished speaking, the cultist of Vecna looked at him for a moment, before stopping to stare to the side, nodding, and then leaving in silence.

"Next time around I'm making you pay for another hint!" Albert chuckled once more. He was coming to like this stuff… He had prepared the plan knowing full well that, nine out of ten, there was someone else listening to it, and that by doing so he would have created distrust into the ranks. He wasn't a man of faith or of religions, belonging to an external pantheon or not, he was a man of science. He was a fervent Atheist if you wanted to put it in some way or another. He'd crush them all.

Just like Artos Basileus Sfor thought he would, he'd do it better.

"Have a horse ready, and send order sixty-six thorough the camp, they'll know what to do." Albert said to the supply officer, who had no idea what the order was about, but still, he'd obey, so he did the military salute.

"Joseph, grab the horse and then reach for me, by the time you arrive, either everything is solved, or everything is in deep, deep need of explosions."

"But you said…oh you cunning devil!" Josephs smirked once more, as he and the General moved.

"If you watch the scene, and you see me scratching my right chin, come and get me though, got it?" as Albert chose the signal, Joseph nodded.

*Demons & Devils- Tristain's capital surroundings*

Orcus smiled for a brief moment, before frowning, but in the end, shaking his head like it didn't matter, he launched forward with an unstoppable yell, as did all the demons at his side. It was time to put an end to this.

The overlord of the devils stood on the other side, his face contorted between anger and scorn, as violent curses poured forward from his foul mouth, the Malebranche devils on his side charged too against the incoming demonic horde, and soon, a battle that recurred permanently on the first layer of the nine hells, happened on Tristain's soil once more. As brothers in evil, but enemies on Order and Chaos, the two foul sides met with brutal power and uncaring blazes, against calculative movements and backstabbing trickery.

Orcus saw the overlord of the devils, who had assumed his real form, of twisted horns and red skin, long nails and fierce clawed hands, the right one wrapped around a sword as big as a house and yelling a furious and foul curse, charged.

The Overlord of devils saw Orcus, as the foul and corpulent humanoid creature which had powerful goat legs and a desiccated head similar to that of a ram. His great wings were stirring up a reeking cloud of diseased air. He seemed somewhere between life and death - his sore-ridden body suggesting diseased life, but his head and glowing red eyes suggested undeath. His thick, spiny tail was in constant motion, and he used it well, cleaving through demons and devils alike just to reach him.

Asmodeus couldn't help but realize that this wasn't the real reason why Artos wanted him there. He came to realize the truth of the matter only seconds afterwards the departure of the Wizard, but decided to play along. The very least he could do, because the Wizard's plans, and his, were but the same: the destruction of the gods, those who had cast him down, and those who had ruined the life of an otherwise ignorant boy, who would have probably lived his life till a normal, pathetical, mortal death.

Fighting Orcus wasn't a bad deal, after all, if it helped close his own plan, which had gone on for thousands and thousands of years. Still, he never liked the pain that seemed to increase from his wounds that were cracked and still wept blood every time he fought.

As both the sides minions left place for their two overlords to fight, more chaos erupted when a third party entered the scene, blowing up half the overlords' armies in less than a second.

That. Well that made both the Demon and the Devil stare at each other and since shock and surprise was on both their face that…well that shocked everyone else. Asmodeus never showed shock, never. He always did his best to look like it was part of his plan, like everything was going on his side. To show surprise was a weakness, a horrible weakness. Yet…

"REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THE QUEEN'S LAND YOU FOUL CREATURES! EXPLOSION!" both the Demon and the Devil, in their towering heights, jumped backwards, with speed, avoiding another bright light explosion that…tore apart their units like they were made of paper. What was worst however was that they actually felt the demons, and the devils, being…exorcised: they weren't returning to their plane, to then get a portal and come back, they were actually killed, there and without fault. The more the strange pink-haired banshee killed, the less powerful both of them felt, as their follower's numbers were greatly reduced. What was worst was that the pink-haired banshee simply stopped time whenever the hell she liked it! This was going against all rules, every single damn rule ever placed. She flickered her damn wand and puff, hundreds destroyed, thousands wounded. Furthermore she wasn't even there, as that was an illusion of her, as some unlucky Vrock discovered trying to plunge downwards and snatch her up, only to end impacting against a group of really famished War Imps.

The demon and the devil lords stared at each other in surprise, but then, as if on cue, they both let out a loud roar:

"ARTOOOSSSSSS!"

The giant white ball engulfed them all, tearing them apart at a level of pain that they couldn't believe, and, the next moment, once the explosion spell subsided, there was nothing there. Not even a speck of dust.

*Louise's side*

The academy was empty when Louise had reached it, so, for lack of better things she had gone straight towards the capital…only to find it under attack by monsters…

_S: Told you it would work._

_V: I'm powerful! I'm Powerful!_

_B: Yes, you are. Good, so it works._

_L: What were they yelling? It sounded awfully like your name, but my Abyssal is a bit rusty._

_S: Oh you and your subtle *I already know* questions! _

_L: I learned from a master after all!_

_B: Oh she's growing on us isn't she?_

_S: Yeah! We could adopt her, you know?_

_L: My parents are still alive…_

_S&B&V: …_

_L: What?_

_S: Nothing._

_B: Yeah._

Louise stared from the little meadow in which she was hiding, the escape of the devils and the demons that had been fighting by the time she had reached the area with her horse. She'd seen the fight from far away, as the sky had been a strange hue of red, with enormous flying monsters fighting and lashing at each other, falling on the battlefield as spells were hurled around, and the ground was shattered and drenched in the blood of the foul creatures. She had used an illusion spell, and then she had hidden and begun the real matter of fact work on them.

Void spells. Without an element, without a restraint, those were the only things that would actually harm them: they were cheating, in a certain way. Still, cheating is everything for those too weak to win. TO cheat is to live, to live one must cheat.

_S: Those two you killed were on par with the gods. One was Orcus, demon prince of the undead, while the other was Asmodeus, ruler of the ninth circle of hell. _

_L: Really powerful? So … am I as strong as you now?_

_B: Hardly. Remember, you need more than six-hundreds of battle-experience, but you did good kid, you did good…I'm half proud._

_S: And I'm the other half-proud._

"Still…it seems a bit ...I don't know...let's move guys!" as Louise gave the order, her small, feeble army of skeletons and zombie started marching in line, to collect the weapons and armors left scattered around from the already dead by the time she had gotten there.

_S: The stronger you are._

_B: The more battles are decided in a blink of an eye._

_S: Seconds, in fact. The first one to cast is the first one to win. Blink an eye? You just died._

_B: no second chances on that._

_L: I see…_

Then she felt something tug at her, from one of her skeletal scouts that she had sent forward, it was a vision of…the maid? What was she doing in… Oh, she was in Tarbes, her hometown. She was speaking to someone. The skeleton had opened the door and then…

It had lost contact.

"What happened?" Louise whispered.

_S: What?_

_B: Yeah, what?_

_L: Nothing…though we're taking a detour to Tarbes._

_S: Tarbes…?_

_L: You're monotone. _

_S: What? Me? No!_

_L: What *is* in Tarbes?_

_S: nothing._

_B: absolutely nothing._

Louise mounted on her horse, and clutching the reins hard, she stared at her small *army*.

"TO TARBES." She yelled, no longer caring about the voices in her head, telling her not to go, she wasn't shutting them up, she was simply ignoring them…and because of that, they couldn't stop her.

*Fouquet's side*

She had been on the trail of the Pferdpanzer Corps like a dog would have been on that of a raw steak. She hadn't slept, she hadn't eaten, and she hadn't cared at all, her horse had nearly given in one night, and that had forced her to rest. As she had laid to the side of the panting best, who had literally preferred staying on the side, she couldn't help but shiver at what the men of the Pferdpanzer Corps, but especially, Hellfire, would do to her younger sister. They hadn't gone towards the capital though, so, maybe, they were meeting someplace less guarded, and that would have made it easier to rescue her younger sister. She even had snatched two wands, just to hand one over to the elven girl, the naïf girl, the one that had been brought into this damn life and this situation by HER.

It was all Fouquet's fault, she was sure of it. The fact she was giving herself the fault in third person was even worst, but she had to live with what she got, and that was the truth: it was her fault.

She closed her eyes, trying to doze off, but she suddenly jolted up on her knees, feeling a sharp pain coming from her side.

Moving her hand to the side, she could feel a sharp point coming out of it, assuming the form of teethes, then followed by the entirety of a flaming skull, which, laughing heavily, began eating her up, leaving nothing but pain and darkness.

She opened her eyes with a scream, her horse walking nearby to eat some of the grass and with a set of sharp breathes, as she stood up, shaking her head: she had to keep her cool. The nightmare had to simply be a result of the stress that was … eating her up.

Fouquet mounted on her horse, and began, albeit at a calmer pace, to follow the tracks of the Pferdpanzer, she had to reach them in time, she hoped.

When she actually had reached them, she had mentally sent curses to anything and anyone who could receive them. There was a damn ARMY there, and she was on a Tristain's horse with the symbol of Tristain on the saddle, and a Tristain's noble mantle.

Worst, however, was that she couldn't get neared at all, when she watched, from far away, thanks to a spyglass, the sight of her sister been taken by a brutish guy, and flung into a tent.

She gritted her teethes, punching her fist deep into the ground. Then she heard a commotion in the camp minutes later and, returning her spyglass, she saw Von Riktofen burning alive the guy with the most furious face ever seen, and his flame, well…it was black.

"That's why he's the hellfire…his fire is black…" Fouquet muttered in awe. Still, when she saw Tiffania falling on the ground, crying, her heart cringed again, as the man grabbed her by the side and pushed her to follow him, this time however, nobody stopped them from moving.

"I'm getting her back you bastard. Just you wait. I'll steal her right under your nose."

_Uh! I love challenges!_

"Wh-what?" Fouquet turned around, but saw no-one. Just what was going on?

_Hey. How about a bet?_

…_WHO ARE YOU!_

_Not important. Bets are more important._

_What bet?_

_You dash off and manage to grab the girl's hand, before she reaches the command tent…if you do that, then I'll swish you away together with your horse._

…_Fine._

Fouquet knew better than trust a strange voice in her head, but that *was* a nice choice. She expected surprise to be on her side, so that was why she let go of all her inhibition and common sense, that was yelling at her that charging into a tend-base camp made of over a thousand Germanians was a bad idea, and actually started galloping straight through, using her wand to create a stone golem, to distract as many as he could.

The look on the commander of the Pferdpanzer was priceless, she realized, as she actually managed to get close to him just in the time it took him to raise his wand. Nobody actually would have expected that, but after the initial surprise, many had tried getting in the way of the horse, just to get trampled or more intelligently dodging to the side the steed. Arrows had darted, as bolts actually ended up hitting her on the side of her body, like the dream, her lower side was suddenly charred beyond recognition, eaten by the flames of the second in command of the Pferdpanzers, Gunter. As she fell down, she slowly started crawling towards her sister.

As Tiffania saw her sister arriving by horse, she thought she had turned mad, but all she could was to start screaming when the first bolt hit her on the side, then an arrow, then another arrow, another bolt. As she neared by, she saw that Albert didn't want to, she had told him of who Fouquet was for her, but she couldn't stop her sister in time from running him over! Then, a cone of flame engulfed the horse, and the lower half of Fouquet, the Crumbling Earth was now black and charred, still, vomiting blood, the green haired woman moved forward.

She wouldn't stop now, and if she did, well, if she did die, then maybe she'd meet Arty again, his smile, his gentle touch.

"SISTER!" Tiffania ran, surprisingly left by Albert to go and grab the hand of Fouquet…only for the thief to disappear alone.

"Sis?" Tiffania turned around looking at Albert, who had the same puzzled look.

"Where is my sister!"

To that, Albert had not a single clue too.

When Mathilda came to, she was laid on a patch of grass, Artos at her side, watching her with a smile.

"I'm dead." She matter of fact said.

"Nah," Artos replied shaking his head.

"You are dead. So I am dead too." she pointed that out pretty calmly.

"Nope: I am alive, dead, and undead. You are simply alive." He replied with a more calm way.

"So, where are we?" Fouquet asked, deciding to ignore the intense belief of being alive that Arty seemed to possess, and looking around, it seemed like a normal green hill, without much in the distance but a series of glints.

"That over there is the Gallian's army. There is my army to that side, and the Germanian one is just behind the forest."

"So it's another war?" Mathilda queried, looking at Artos, who simply smiled back at her.

"Well, that depends. They can surrender." Artos pointed that out.

"Oh yes, they would be wise to, I wonder why they haven't yet." Mathilda replied.

"Hope is such a fickle thing." As Arty said that, Mathilda grabbed him by the sides of his robe, and pushed him closer for a kiss, but Artos held her still with a hand.

"Not right now. We'll have time…that I promise."

Mathilda pouted.

"So, why feign your dead?"

"Who said I didn't die?" Artos queried back.

"Then how are you alive?"

"I'm a powerful Wizard!" he pointed that out patting on his heart.

"A spell?" Mathilda queried.

"I'll tell you when everything is done…till then, do me a favor, and attack the Germanian's ambassador when you appear there on a horse. Furthermore, please, act surprised no matter what I do…it's all part of the plan."

"The plan?" Mathilda queried perplexed.

"Yes, the plan." As Artos nodded that, he gently brought his hand forward, to move away a slip of green hair from Mathilda's head and put it behind her right ear.

"Fine then, but then you'll explain everything, got it?" she replied.

"I sure will." Artos smiled, and in that moment, she felt herself on a horse, seeing emerging from the woods the Germanian ambassador, who was no other than Albert Von Riktofen, and as her hand went to her wand, and she began chanting, so did Albert, realizing just what was going on.

How much time had passed? She couldn't recall, yet it seemed more than likely a day. As that thought crossed her mind, she realized her wand, and that of Albert, had been taken away by an invisible force, and pulled straight into the palms of a mantled figure, who was gently floating mere inches above his seat, as the ruler of Necros, Artos Basileus Sfor, looked at them through his bone helm, his eyes glittering red, he smiled.

Everything was going according to plan.

*Louise's mind*

_"I told you before, but let me repeat myself: I hold no ill will, nor intention for harm. Do not test my patience, for the one I substitute isn't at all forgiving as I am"_ Substitute…who? Basileus? Sfor?

_"Yes, precisely, at Newcastle"_

_"Which means we are going to take the ship from La Rochelle, right?"_

How did he know of La Rochelle before being told? Had he looked at it in the library, but why? HE had later said it would have taken weeks to get the point, and he was reading magic books, not geography ones.

_Arty whistled once, and from nowhere, with a loud and tangible *crack* a crow appeared, setting himself on his shoulder. The only things strange about the crow were his eyes, red as blood, and the fact that it stood eerily silent on the wizard's shoulder._

_"This is Guendaline, and *SHE* is a wonderful familiar" Arty replied, nodding as he petted the crow on the head. _

How did he conjure the familiar? It should have always been with him, right? Unless he had already grabbed her from his plane, but then, how? Familiars can't be conjured outside of one's plane.

_"Yes...those who understand the lessons are few, but they exist." _ That message was for Wardes, yet he did nothing to him leaving him alive till later on… and even then, he hid waiting for me to do the kill, why?

_Wardes immediately threw an air blade at Arty, which dispersed into nothingness inches before touching him or Louise._ Why didn't he dodge? Why did he dispel it? He should have been sure of the dispel working before doing it. So…when?

_Hope is a fickle thing, girl._ Sfor said that sentence…didn't he? Yet why was she feeling that someone else had?

When the pirates shot at him on the ship, why did they shoot? Why did he let himself be shot?

Her memory feverishly worked once more on the events, realizing some words that she had forgotten.

_"Sleep well child, for the night will moan with…"_

_"the screams of the dead" _she had heard that sentence? When? How? Why was it different?

_"Wardes!" Louise yelled, "what are you doing?"_

_"Killing the Tristain envoy" he replied. _If Basileus had wanted to kill everyone in the castle, then why didn't he also kill Wardes? What was the point of letting him live, so that he would try and kill her? She had to KNOW.

"_Per Binding Rules Agreement, you are offered the choice about your life. Choose."_ If he was forced to have her choose, why were both he and Basileus protecting her? It meant he had to be forced to, but then…one had asked two things. So that left…one more thing to be asked by Sfor and maybe also Basileus. One more order, unable to refuse it.

"_I suppose that the use of a Void Spell is especially taxing on willpower"_ How did he know? He knew about the Gandalfr's runes too. Had he researched them previously, then why not warn her that she was damn Brimir reincarnated? What did he need to…prove?

Wait. Proof. He always worked with proofs.

_"Louise Françoise, my dear friend, please…be wary of your familiar, he has to be hiding something"_ The Queen had been right, dead-on, and she hadn't believed her friend, she had instead insisted that Artos was right. He always was right after all.

_"Good master and bad master. They are both the same. One dies the other comes. The other comes destruction comes. Death and death. Death and DEATH!"_ The crow had spoken like that, yet she had defended Arty once more. Truth had come differently. Death. One dies, the other comes, but why?

"_Why are you immortal? What happened?" _He had dodged the question. Now she knew it had to be something evil.

_"Louise. Go and call Siesta's father" he whispered._ This had come at the time Marcus had died, when she had left him alone in the forest. The forest of Tarbes, it had been half an hour before Marcus' father had come back, Arty behind…she didn't want to think, but what if he had done something in that time period?

She was growing increasingly paranoid, trying to find faults in anything that Artos had ever done.

Then he had headed to the fields of Tarbes again, but had lost the airplane, where? How? She couldn't believe he had simply lost it, so it had to have gone *somewhere*. Maybe in Tarbes itself? That was where it was? Was he planning on using it to bring down the gods?

"_Arty snapped his finger and a long black wand appeared in his hands"_.

To call back the dead, to speak to them, to conjure them, to bring them up as servants or friends…to resurrect them, Arty could have resurrected the previous King, with a Wish spell, had he wanted to, but he hadn't. Why?

"_alter your memory so you don't recall anything, and then keep going as nothing happened"_ Oh g…

_S: Sphynx._

_L: What was I doing?_

_B: We were going to Tarbes because you're on a mission to cure your paranoia._

_L: Oh, RIGHT! I'm sure you're hiding something._

_S: Yeah…_

_B: You have no idea…_

*Ambassadors meeting*

Nobody actually wanted to sit down on the chairs, as everyone was wary of possible tricks; furthermore, they all felt a bit of divine power, lingering around, that wasn't there previously, when those who could check last did.

Artos stood there, unfazed, looking to his right and to his left side, before muttering:

"You can place circle of truths around the area, if you so wish." With those words, the clerics nodded, it was common courtesy in parleys after all. If the Ruler of Necros was going to lie, they'd know it.

Slowly, everyone took a seat in the middle of the plain, only after having made a circle of silver powder and sprinkled holy, or unholy, water, around place, everyone eyeing each other, keeping careful contact also with the Ruler of Necros. The only point where it wasn't raining, but still it wasn't sunny never the less, was precisely there. Fouquet, strangely, was gestured to seat in the Albion's spot.

"There isn't anyone else from Albion's nobility." Artos stated as she took the seat.

The Good clerics took a seat on the right side, while the evil Gods' chosen took the seats on the left, with the Germanian's ambassador, where, surprisingly, all decided against sitting.

"I'm fine on my feet." He said dismissing the issue, so as Albert Von Riktofen stayed put, Artos smiled. That one was the one that had impressed Guendaline. The other evil gods did the same.

"Now then…as I'm sure you all know you can't possibly defeat…"

"Excuse me, but I want to know something before we begin." The Wee Jas necromancer, a strange pale guy with dark green hair, raised his hand, and, at a nod of Artos, kept speaking.

"This isn't a trap."

"No, it's not. I made a personal agreement with the god Mechanus, that this be considered an area of talk. The moment hostilities begin, everyone sitting at the table is sent immediately back at the nearest temple of their gods, as per agreements, the lingering divine energy is Mechanus' acknowledgement of said contract."

At those words, the evil clerics smirked in anger, and took a seat, they weren't outright threatening only because they'd have hell to pay, considering what they had to give to the Vecna cultist, and they'd get everything back later on, but not now.

Strangely, Albert didn't sit.

Artos eyed him perplexed, did the man realize?

"Well then, we may begin now: as I was previously mentioning," as he said that, Albert simply scratched his right chin, and the next moment, he was gone.

"What is…" the Erythnul chosen, a strange Gnoll with really horrible teethes, was furiously trying to get to his axe.

"The Germanian ambassador doesn't even want to hear the terms? I'm surprised, but well, it was his choice, however." As Artos shrugged, he kept on saying.

"You may surrender now, or die. If you surrender, eventually you will be killed, you will become an undead, and you will be awakened…maybe."

All the clerics actually looked at each other. Was this the man who was able to convince people, to con people into going around naked, and who was known to have the most silver tongue out of all the planes? He was just making them angry, and without reason too.

Mathilda was perplexed. This didn't look at all how Arty handled thing, it was like, whoever was there, was utterly bored and uncaring, like it didn't matter. Yet he had been tender minutes before…what was going on? As she tried to recollect the memories between her idiotic charge into the Germanian encampment and her arrival there, a difficult task, she seemed to recall pain, charred legs, and then a pair of red fiery eyes.

"Shouldn't you wait for the Tristain's ambassador?" the Queen of Gallia politely spoke, "At least before explaining terms?"

"Why should I? The queen's dead, as is the ruler of the ninth circle of hell, and Orcus." At the name pronounced, the clerics shivered, looking around, did that fool just say out loud the name of a demonic entity! Yet…nothing happened. Then they realized the man hadn't been lying, so, either he knew how to avoid the circle of truth's effects, which was still plausible, being him the monster that their Gods warned them against, or maybe he was saying the truth…which was even worst, as it meant he had the power to destroy beings that even the gods themselves didn't want to challenge.

"What…" the cleric of Nerull had no words, what was…

"Happened? It happened that I have my hands on a power so great that it bypasses whatever divine protection, unholy protection or merely protection anyone has, it's like the Fury of the Gods epic spell, only…it works with a flick of a wrist and without back damage."

The cleric of Vecna looked at the wizard with distrust in her eyes, before muttering under her breath.

"You are lying. You wouldn't say such a…"

"I say what I want, you believe what you want...the circle of truth is here, so either I'm saying the truth, either I firmly believe it's the truth," the reply came as a snap.

"I've got the power to utterly crush ANY god and ANY divine being of ANY type, form, or species. NOBODY AND NOTHING can stop me now, so SURRENDER AND DIE or fight and DIE, there is no talking, no exchanging insults or anything else, that is my power."

The clerics shivered as strange waves of fear entered the very core of their souls, and Mathilda herself, being the closest, felt the need to place a hand in front of her mouth to avoid screaming out.

"Still, if you really want a proof of my power…fine. Guendaline, grab the Duchess, Karin the heavy wind," as Artos muttered that rolling his eyes over, a crow-woman appeared from the back of the ruler of Necros, before disappearing in a shadow, just to re-emerge less than a minute later, with the Duchess chained and bound.

Even chained, and probably beaten by the interrogators of Germania, the Duchess didn't seem the type to falter. Her gaze remained steeled, even as she was forced to sit.

"Why would this demonst…" demonstrate your power? That was the question in the voice of Bidashal, who, for the first time since having accepted to become the cleric of Corellon Lathian, died in his voice, when Shilasil, the cleric of St. Cuthbert, gritted his teeth looking at the shocked faces of the clerics of the evil deities.

"He probably grabbed her from some safe and secluded location in Germania, without any of them knowing."

"No, it's better than that, good old thorn in my side…" Artos replied, "She was meant to become the play toy of their new emperor, and as such, was in his rooms, heavily guarded rooms…So guess who *is* still in his room? And who has a familiar that can do that with ease? And if this is easy then…where does that leave us?"

Shilasil's eyes bulged, no. It couldn't be.

"You…YOU ARE NOT A…" Lich, the word never came however, as the next moment Shilasil's body was turned to ash, his soul screaming in agony, as under the horned elm two flickering red eyes dispelled the illusion on his body.

There, there stood the Demilich Artos Basileus Sfor.

"H-how…" the cleric of Vecna died, a sword passing her from side to side where her heart was.

"Y-You said…" the cleric of Nerull's head swiftly fell from his neck, no longer supported.

"Think it in death." Artos replied, shrugging.

"ARTOS!" the roar came from Agnes, who charged at the flying skull, flaming sword in hand. The Queen of Gallia had suffered the same fate as the cleric of Vecna, as the swords had seemingly appeared all at the same time, striking down all at the table with a swift movement, all, except Mathilda, and Agnes herself.

"I kind of wondered where the portal of positive energy was for quite a long time." As he queried that, Agnes sword harmlessly bounced off an invisible shield in front of the skull.

"That's when I realized that probably, they wouldn't be using a flashy thing like a Solar to guard it." As he added that, he slowly began floating right in front of Mathilda who, from the shock, had fainted.

"Instead, they'd place it somewhere that would be impossible to find out, somewhere to keep it safe and especially, somewhere *smart*." Agnes charged once more, fury, scorn, hate in her face, not caring the slightest for the words of the skull.

"You should stop your petty tries, kid." The Skull muttered, pushing her on the ground with a giant hand of force.

"Wh…WHY! WHY YOU! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU TO HELL!" Agnes yelled at the skull, her sword blazing furiously as she tried her best to remove the hand from her.

"I've been in hell for the past centuries, kid. Today is the day everything ends. I do need one last thing though…" as he said that, he looked at the Duchess, Karin the Heavy wind, who stared back at him, her face a mixture of worry and anger.

"My daughter," the Duchess muttered, "How long have you been using her?"

"From the very beginning," Sfor replied, with relative ease, "You see...no, never mind, silly old me trying to explain everything. Wrong habits are hard to break." At that moment, a ray burst forward from the table towards the skull, which dodged to the side.

"I did think it was too easy!" as he muttered that, he realized that Shilasil, but also Bidashal, who had been close to the other man, were both pretty much unscathed.

"Elven magic of this land to reinforce the body, huh? Should have gone with a blade of utter darkness," Sfor muttered, "as for Shilasil, yeah, there's a reason you're a torn on my side…you actually had the balls to cast an illusion spell, contemplative that you are, I hate your guts."

"Shut up you monster from hell! You lied about Mechanus' protection!" Shilasil exclaimed, launching another ray, white and fiery, at the skull, which still dodged it much egregiously.

"I did not. You'd have picked it up. The truth was that an attack had already happened in the area…but there was no-one sitting on a chair, so no-one went back." As Sfor grinned, "which is why your gods didn't intervene, you see, as of the meeting, they do not know what future is going to happen, so they didn't know I was lying to them."

"What are you talking about?" Bidashal queried.

"I'm saying that right now, while we are *here* bickering, and fighting to the death…somewhere else, the cogs of fate are turning in my favor…" With that wicked grin, the Skull began casting and counter casting spells, as all Agnes could do was watch from the side, too weak to actually intervene in a battle between centuries old foes.

*Tarbes*

Louise's skeletons had neared the village before everyone else. So, when Louise actually arrived, the villagers had already grabbed their pitchforks and torches, and had bundled together in the town square, staring at the strange necromantic creatures that certainly didn't look amiable.

The pink-haired girl couldn't care less about them, she strolled with calm towards Siesta's house, and literally had Janson tear down the door.

There, standing with his hands folded into his lap, stood Basileus.

She knew it was him, even with the illusion he had casted to look alive.

"I was right…Where is Arty?" She queried, as the voices inside her head died out, her anger visible and touchable.

Basileus shrugged, removing his semblance of life from his features, and standing up slowly.

"He never liked wars, so…"

"You lied about the flip coin rules." Louise pointed out, "Every one of your words has been a lie".

"Oh no, I didn't." Basileus replied, "At least, I had a plan forming up, but I never did much, I don't know what you are thinking, but the truth is another: Arty actually died when the gods called down the pillar of divine energy." As he spoke that, easily, a staff, red and golden, with spikes on the top, emerged to his right side.

"The problem was that the Clone spell, a high level necromancy spell, actually worked, and the soul of Arty merged into a full-fledged body…back in Terenestia." As he finished pointing that out, Louise looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Then your voices in my head?"

"That was part of the plan: did you really, really think Arty would have been THAT stupid? It was to fool you, have you avoid asking unnecessary questions to someone who'd have troubles lying, because yes, he *is* good, for the moment."

"How did you manage that?"

"Mental links are easy to establish with my magic system, having them feign being real was a part of it."

"What about the Void voice, the githzerai charging through…the negative energy plane?" Louise queried, shocked.

"Mostly forced and controlled dreams, the void voice was simply me, having you come to term with yourself and your real power, and using it by mending it to my purposes to entrap, and absorb the energy of the plane. You haven't realized that, normally, you shouldn't be able to so easily summon and control so many large undeads?"

"Then how did you come in existence, if Arty was the one dying?" Louise queried, worried.

"I didn't lie when I said my consciousness had ended up inside of you, Louise, as that of Sfor. However, once Arty died, and got back, he slowly tried, and succeeded, into summoning us one at a time, reverse casting your Void summon spell, the reason he needed weeks before coming back was so that each of us could copy our own spells in different books, and prepare carefully. We are three separate entities now, all equally powerful…by now, Sfor has revealed his real presence out, and the gods are desperately going to look for Arty and Me."

"Did you really have to do this? Why didn't you ASK ME for help!" Louise's eyes started to water, as the feelings of betrayal came even louder on her, as she raised her wand.

"Because, otherwise, you wouldn't have killed us," Basileus whispered, "I need you to kill us off, you proved you could do it, and that is what I want you to do."

"You're lying…you're telling me this so I don't kill you." Louise replied, shaking her head, her hand trembling.

"You could use accelerando, and explosion, and be done with it. Why don't you?" Basileus replied.

"Where is Arty?" She asked.

"I won't answer that until you defeat me." Basileus replied, his staff beginning to swing.

"WHERE. IS. ARTY!" As Louise launched Accelerando, she charged through, only to find out that Basileus moved swiftly on par, if not faster than her.

"Haste and Stop Time."  He muttered, as he knocked her to the side, throwing his staff to the side of Louise, making her scream in pain.

In that moment, Janson attacked the mysterious undead creature that was harming his master.

"It's useless to fight me once I'm serious. You should have attacked at the beginning." Basileus muttered, waving a hand, as Louise screamed even harder, for Janson turned to dust.

"Disrupt Undead" Basileus whispered.

"YOU MONSTER!" as Louise yelled that, Basileus jumped backward, just in time to avoid a blast of fire, black fire, coming at him from the side.

"H-how?" this time, it was Basileus' turn to be shocked, as he was staring at Albert Von Riktofen, the Hellfire, his wand aimed at him.

"ATTACK HIM!" Albert waved his hand swiftly, running behind the wall of the house in time to avoid a polar ray, that would have spelled his doom, had been just any man, but he had learned the way of the fight, you move, or you die.

Louise used accelerando once more, this time managing to lodge her wand deeply into Basileus' side, before the Wizard managed to launch a sort of sonic wave, sending the wooden house to crash down, but also throwing Louise out into the square, where the rest of her undeads charged at the enemy, only to be turned to ash in the blink of an eye.

Albert dashed next to the pink-haired girl, and muttered:

"We kill him, and then we talk!"

Louise actually nodded to the man's words, he had Germanian symbols on him, and, last she knew, Germania was still allied with Tristain…

She raised her wand, panting as the double use of Accelerando had left her weakened.

"You think you can defeat me?" Basileus queried, as the dust dispersed to reveal the Lich form in all of its necromantic glory.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT A BEING OF SIX-HUNDRED YEARS!" he roared, as waves of fear landed onto them.

"Everyone dies, eventually," was all that Albert muttered, before launching forward a fire ray from the tip of his wand, who was met with the appearance of a fire elemental, bigger than anything seen before by them.

"Pyros, Scorcher of forests, kill the man, but leave the girl alive!" as Pyros' hand fell down upon Albert, he smiled. Well, it was a good day as any to die.

The fire elemental's hands stopped, however, as a set of small pure white sphere appeared all over its body, before making it shiver and explode into pieces.

A staggered Joseph made his appearance, panting for air after the effort to bring down such an enormous monster had taken its toll.

"You are interesting, Von Riktofen! I won't let interesting things…" but he couldn't finish the sentence, a sword passing him from side to side, standing next to the fallen body of the man was a Halfling, covered in a dark cape, the symbols of Olidammara on him.

Albert jumped backward on reflex, avoiding a scorching ray that was probably aimed at the ground where he had stood moments before, Basileus hadn't seemed fazed by the appearance of the halfling, and had instead used it to his own advantage, before making his staff swirl to his side, avoiding all the five crossbow darts that the Halfling, Zick, sent against him.

"Kids should stop making adult sick." As Basileus snapped his fingers, an even bigger fire elemental appeared, of colossal stature.

"Ignus, burner of hope, annihilate…" and then Ignus disappeared, as Louise stood there, pointing her wand at him, with a wicked smile.

"Dispel works also on summoned creature if I'm fast enough."

Basileus growled, as he resorted to a barrage of magic missiles, just to see them all disperse before his very eyes.

Professor Colbert stood in the clearing, wand in hand, the very same wand that Arty had gifted him before, now used against him.

"I KNEW IT!" he roared, as his wand flickered slowly, a flame snake appearing.

A barrage of black-colored fireballs threw itself at the Wizard from the side, as Von Riktofen kept running and chanting, while avoiding a set of rays that would pretty much spell his immediate departure. Same thing happened for Zick, only he was shooting bolts, and Basileus had actually managed to conjure swarms of rats, helped by the thick dust that was starting to levitate around them.

The fire snake, that launched itself forward from the tip of Colbert's wand, met its equal in an earth elemental, but that was probably what Colbert wanted, as from his free hands, force missiles launched themselves forward, aiming at the Wizard in the middle of the dust.

"You should shoot only with clear visibility of the target." Basileus muttered, as he jumped backwards once more, seeing how his shields, his mage armor, his magical protection, had seemingly been disabled either by the disjunction of Mordenkainen in the wand, or by Louise's Dispel magic.

Louise was beginning to tire, and thus forced herself to mutter as quickly as possible the explosion spell, she didn't care if she died there, the important thing was to carry Basileus to the tomb with her!

Albert's breath became irregular, as all he wanted right then was to catch a breather, and, to do so, he dashed into a half-destroyed house, away from sight, away from enemy spells.

As he panted for breath, he looked to his left, red eyes meeting his own.

"You are a Shadow." He muttered.

"The lord of Shadows." The shadow replied.

"You haven't killed me yet." Albert actually pointed that out, seeing how he would obviously still die right there no matter what, so, better get going to the other side while trying to look at the very least, a bit…cool.

"The Lord said to not attack all who don't believe in gods, you are thus an ally." As the lord of shadow actually pointed that out, a thought came straight through Albert's mind.

It couldn't be.

Yes, it could be.

He dashed towards the fight, still in progress, and as Louise was about to complete her incantation, the bright white sphere ready to appear, he barely managed to yell a…

"ST…" before a crossbow bolt embedded itself deeply into the side of his neck and forcing him to silence, and death.

The fake believer of Olidammara dashed forward, just as the rats, on cue, stopped attacking him, and launched themselves against Colbert who, swiftly, but not enough, didn't get away from a bolt, straight through his head.

Louise finished the incantation, as her right hand was swiftly removed from her body by the swinging of a really, really sharp sword, sending emotions of pain running through her body, as a sphere appeared in that moment just around the white energy explosion, which seemed to become brighter by the second.

"Just as planned," Basileus chuckled, as the halfling smirked, while kicking Louise to the side, his right foot standing on her still remaining attached arm.

"No more attacking for you missy."

"…trust no one." Louise muttered, no longer even strong enough to cry her frustration.

"If it can be of help, you actually lasted more than any normal enemies I usually fight." Basileus chuckled.

"So, Boss, everything's ready?" Zick queried Basileus, who stood in silence for a moment.

"Seems like it."

*Ambassadors side*

Shilasil panted, as his armor cracked and fell to the side, the only thing standing between him and death was the Mirror Shield that Agnes had brought up, but which had cost Bidashal's right arm to snap the captain out of her blind rage, as Sfor simply stood there, a cackling sound coming from his teeth snapping repeatedly.

"This is so much fun, you know?" The Demilich muttered, "I'm sure you're asking yourself *How is that possible?* the gods should intervene! Why is no-one coming to stop big-bad me? The reason, you lousy pathetical meat bags, is the same reason I hate the gods: they don't care. Now, however, I've got the insider view on the matter. They'll be forced to come, or they'll see ME ascend to godhood. After all…the Energy of Two planes, positive and Negative, will flow into ME." With a chuckle, he conjured an Earth elemental, as big as a house.

"Do me a favor, and toy with the three idiots while I grab all I need to grab." As the Skull said that, he flew, having Mathilda and the Duchess actually flying, by force, together with him, now at a faster than ever rate, towards the Gallian's army, who had tried to charge through, seeing what was happening, only to be met with the appearance of the Death wings, which had cleaved through their numbers and their dragoons like they were made of paper. The Germanian Army had instead been stalled in the forest by half the Necros' forces, and the forest itself was being heavily bombarded with a substance akin Greek fire, which, thanks to the rain going on, simply grew stronger by the second, wails of death were also commonly heard, bringing doom upon the Germanian side who's ears it managed to catch, as the Banshee yelled like it was meant to be, her claws moving in close when the need came.

Sfor dodged to the side, avoiding what looked like ice javelin, thrown at him by a flying blue dragon, on top of which stood a very enraged blue haired girl.

"YOU BETRAYED ME!" She yelled, as even Sylphid actually looked scary, roaring at him and doing her best to keep pace.

"Grab a ticket and follow the line!" Sfor yelled back at her, making sure both Karin and Mathilda avoided being hit, it would suck to lose them now, as the rain around him assumed the form of a small typhoon, "Scirocco, last born of Zephyr, keep the brat away." With a smirk, the Demilich kept going, as the small blackish air elemental launched itself against Charlotte's dragon, aiming at its wing.

Sylphid managed to dodge to the side in time, but the small air elemental was fast, and kept chase, forcing Charlotte to turn around, to cast a Air hammer at the summoned elemental, but doing little to no damage, as the moving black typhoon avoided the hits.

She'd have to face the problem head on, and as she prepared ice lances, a thunder flashed down on her and Sylphid, sending the two on the ground, pain jolting through Sylphid's body who crash landed on a couple of unfortunate Gallian soldiers and enemy zombies, with Charlotte rolling out her back, no longer awake, just a couple of meters away.

"E…Elder…sister." Was all the Rhyme Dragon muttered, before darkness engulfed her vision, the last sight she had was of her elder sister twitching, still for the after effects of being hit by a thunderbolt.

When they'd wake up, they'd probably be in a lot of pain…if they actually did wake up.

Sfor swiftly reached the flying ship he and his men had happily stole from the elven city's docks, and looked with a wide grin at the banner holder on the ship, who was staring downwards, at the raging battle.

Karin felt the sudden need to sleep, as Mathilda, still knocked out by the earlier shock, didn't require a spell to have her put together with the *other* guests in the below deck.

"My, a penny for your thoughts, Prince Tudor?" he queried, with a chuckle, as all the death knight replied with was silence.

"You may speak." The Demilich added.

"Henrietta?" he asked.

"Dead…saddening, but necessary to ensure it would work."

"What?" Wales queried, not out of sadness for the loss of his beloved cousin, more out of curiosity as to what the man, his ruler, had to test.

"The previous overlord of hell had been tasked with retrieving her soul. I wanted to make sure souls from this world would travel between planes."

"Why?"

"To make sure the final steps would be completed." Sfor replied simply.

"I have to query why, before killing me, you subjected me to an illusion."

"That was Basileus, the old me was usually a bit melodramatic in acting, thought it did prove that even royal magic wasn't going to cut it."

"Cut it for what?"

"Now, now, not answering that, just, not yet…Get everyone ready…is Arty doing his job downstairs?"

"Yes master."

"Good." With that said, Sfor sent a mental warning to Basileus.

*Grand Finale*

Basileus grabbed hold of the emotionless Louise, and transported her, after being handed over a strange ornate dagger from Zick, to a strange wooden construction. There were no lights coming in from outside, but the walls were thin enough to hear the downpour coming from outside. In this small confined space stood Arty, who looked with a saddened expression at the whimpering child. That's when Louise realized she wasn't alone in there.

There was the fake heretic, who laid asleep, there was her mother, her sisters, who looked furiously at the man in the center of what seemed like an enormous and utterly complicated arcane set of glyphs, and there was Charlotte too, who had been gagged and dragged in a corner, yet she was wearing nun clothing.

She was stunned in seeing also Tiffania and Fouquet standing there, but more than that, there was a steel contraption, that had at its center what looked like a sword, a flaming sword, staring at her with two red eyes.

"Well partner, you got them all. It's faint, but it's there…I'm feeling the Void from the big breasted girl and now also from the blue haired youngster…" as Derflinger finished speaking, Arty nodded, biting his lower lip, as Basileus moved the sphere containing the yet to go off explosion in the center of the room.

"Both Riktofen and Colbert arriving were your try to ease your conscience?" Basileus snapped at Arty, who nodded in silence.

"You shouldn't have counted on the assassin's help though…you gave him the dagger of Dissolution, didn't you?" Arty nodded once more, tears running down his cheeks.

"Now that there are no more risks of interruption, where did Sfor go?" as Basileus queried that, the skull cackled, appearing in one of the three points of the circle's drawn inside triangle.

"I'm here young me, let's get this going." Sfor replied, and as he said that, Louise was grabbed and tossed against the wall, while the young red-head girl was grabbed and thrown in the center of the circle.

"Test her." Arty moved his hands, whispering a couple of words as the glyphs shone brightly for a second, but then he shook his head.

"So much for paralyzing her in the midst of the city, while avoiding the Concordant Killer's gaze," Sfor muttered, as he levitated her up, and with a sickening noise tossed her to the side of the room.

"Next." Mathilda was actually taken and brought in the circle by Arty, who repeated the incantation, when the glyphs shone only for a second, he let out a sigh of relief, shaking his head, and grabbing her before Sfor or Basileus could do anything to her.

"_Hypocrite!" _Was the thought of disdain in Louise's mind as her gaze tried her best to pierce through the Wizard's back as he then nodded for the next one to come forward; Karin, Louise's mother, was brought forward, her sleeping form didn't even look too angry, but it still wasn't a happy face to see.

"Not her." Arty muttered, as the process repeated itself both for Cattleya and Eleonore, and Tiffania.

Then, Arty turned his gaze to the Charlotte look-alike, and with a nod, she was placed in the middle of the Glyphs.

In that moment, the glyphs shone brightly, before turning a sickening dark color.

"So it's her…when we tested her before it wasn't…"

"Half was inside of Albert Von Riktofen. I killed him to make sure it would be transferred as a whole. One side used to make the evil go through, the other for the good ones. It explains the increase of clerics in Gallia: she was used for that." Basileus explained.

"It's troublesome" Sfor muttered.

"Still, grab the pink-haired whiner and throw her in too." As darkness engulfed Louise's vision, she knew she was going to die forever cursing the name of those three.

At that moment, just as the three wizards were about to begin their chants, the downpour stopped, the temperature warming up considerably in the blink of an eye, as noises of planes crashing, at least those guided by the Vampires, echoed outside the thin walls.

Without further delay, the three Wizards began their chants.

*Outside*

The Death Knight weren't participating in the battle. No, they had all been stashed aboard the ship for a sole reason: that moment. There orders were to stop the gods from advancing and entering the ship, and that they were going to do.

The first to charge through their ranks was Heironeus, god of Valor, and as he descended upon the battlefield, instead of the ship, many of the Necros soldiers turned to dust just by barely trying to attack him, it wasn't until his unrelenting sword met against the pure gold hue of a staff that it finally found a worthy foe:

"I AM AMHOTEP THE FIFTH!" the mummy lord yelled, as Heironeus' shield absorbed the bash of the mummy, throwing her across the landscape by the counterstrike. Yet the mummy lord rose again.

"I AM AMHOTEP THE SIXTH!" it roared as it charged once more.

Again, it was thrown on the ground.

"THE SEVENTH!"

Once more.

"THE EIGHT!"

Again.

"THE NINTH!"

In the end, Heironeus grew tired, and turned around, just as the mummy's bandages came undone, as it latched firmly onto the god's back, grabbing him into a hold.

"AMHOTEP THE TENTH RULES!" he roared into the ear of the god, literally not letting go the god of valor, as they both trashed around. Wee Jas finally sighed at the sight, deciding she'd best intervene, and met the sword of the god of Valor with her dagger.

"Please make him stop!" Heironeus actually pleaded, and for once, Wee Jas felt a tinge of willingness…only a tinge though, as she actually enjoyed seeing the mummy being destroyed, then reformed, then destroyed again.

"Must be some tough spell in there." She muttered.

Then the next to come was Vecna, god of secret, as it realized with bitter taste that someone was wielding an artifact he'd hope never to see again.

"THE SWORD OF KH…" a set of bullets flew through the body of lich-god, who stumbled for a moment, staring at the Baron Sinfer Von Tereskian, wielder of the Sword of Khas and of a certain trinket to avoid sun death.

"FOR THE RULER OF NECROS!" it yelled, as the cockpit had been cracked, his fear of heights all but forgotten but kept in check, as the fear for his ruler went above and beyond anything else.

Vecna moved a hand to the side, a set of fireball darting at the Zero fighter replica, only to be absorbed by the spell absorption glyphs placed on its wings, and fired back at the wizard, who retorted with the use of a swiftened dispel, before throwing a barrage of Magic Missiles, which harmlessly impacted against a Shield spell.

"Tough nut to crack huh," Vecna muttered as he tried conjuring an air elemental.

Tried being the correct word.

"Wh…WHAT!" as Vecna yelled its surprise, the Baron grinned, ready for another run-in and firing another barrage of bullets.

In the forest, Obad-Hai and Elhonna were clashing against the Germanian's forces, who on their end, were aided by Hextor and Nerull.

"Come on! Is that the best you can do!" Hextor taunted Obad-hai, "Have you gotten senile yet you worthless deity!"

"Shut up! May the Balance punish your excesses!" as staff met flail, scimitar was meeting scythe.

"You think this was destiny?" Nerull muttered, wickedly grinning at Elhonna.

"Feel the wrath of Nature!" as Elhonna snarled, she looked at the trees on her right.

"What? Not answering your call?" Nerull wickedly laughed, as he landed a kick to Elhonna's side.

"Maybe I should chop your head off!" Nerull chuckled, as his scythe came down swiftly, but missing Elhonna's head by a couple of inches.

"In your dreams you Necrophile!" as Elhonna yelled that, her scimitar pushed the scythe to the side, that Nerull let go, since once he did that, and jumped backwards, it reappeared in his hands long enough to block an attack.

In front of the Gallian army, however, there was a bizarre stand-off.

Erythnul, Gruumsh, Lolth and Kurtulmak were in a staring contest with Moradin, Corellon Lathian, Pelor and Kord.

Everyone was staring at each other, waiting.

They realized that a clash among major deities, done there, would probably leave but charred ground.

"So…how about we kill the Wizard first?" Lolth suggested.

"Just so you can backstab us when we turn around!" Corellon Lathian spat.

"Spoke the graceful woman!" Gruumsh snarled.

"Said the one-eyed freak who can't even count to ten!" Moradin replied.

"Bad breath overgrown dwarf needs lesson!" Kurtulmak snarled.

"Shut up creature of the caves and of darkness!" Pelor was furious.

"You shut up you whimsical and overly weak god!" Erythnul replied to the god of the sun.

"Face someone your own size!" Kord boomed with his voice.

Useless to say that the sheer presence of said gods had brought the Gallian army to its knees, and many who could, by luck or chance, avoid their auras had started running away.

The only one missing, that was St. Cuthbert.

He was upwards, flying straight against the ship which held Arty inside, only to find a barrage of divine fire columns burst downwards at him, from the Death Knights special and unique ability.

He had to halt his progress, realizing that the ship had begun being surrounded by a thin shield of sorts that was blocking his perceptions of what happened inside.

He had to dash in, swiftly.

More Death Knights swapped with those who had already used their abilities, and St. Cuthbert growled under his breath the numbers of those that, once used, started up more Death Wings to come at him, who he had to take down both in melee and from afar, using bits and scraps of divine power.

He was smarter than a certain Gruumsh, down below, if he'd tackle the problem, he'd probably get burned, and if he didn't tackle it, then it would probably spell his doom.

He had to be quick on his decision…time was running out.

He wielded his cudgel with both his hands, and with a loud roar charged through the fire columns, which did nothing to him, and the divine energies of the arcane weave, that actually wounded him.

He charged straight through the wooden deck, cursing himself as he felt pain, for the first time in many millennia.

Once he reached the lower deck, moving from level to level, all he could do was bring the cudgel to a furious halt, when, passing through the entirety of the ship, he had not found the Wizard.

"What…HE'S NOT HERE!" St. Cuthbert yelled to his fellow gods.

"WHAT!" was the general reply, especially with Vecna.

"But…" then a sudden realization hit everyone, everyone who had been warned where the Demilich was going to be by a known neutral source.

Neutral meaning it wouldn't care, not that it would help.

"OLIDAMMARA!" as everyone roared its anger, the laughing thief actually laughed, safely hidden in one of the spinning cogs of Mechanus, who was in the process of calculating an optimal course of action for the Wizard's demise in him usurping the gods' power.

That was when his cogs stopped working.

"Mechanus?" Olidammara queried worried.

"I'm stupid." Was all the god planet replied, and that made Olidammara cringe that something, something wasn't going at all like she had planned it to be: a nice laugh, the gods getting on a fight, ending it, and she'd manage to slip Artos away and have fun with him all by her/himself.

"What happened?" Boccob actually queried, moving his nose away from his book.

"He got me," was all that Mechanus could say, before having his cogs start moving at a slower pace.

"What did he do?" Garl queried, puzzled.

"HE bested you in your conning Olidammara and you in your tricks, Garl," was what the god-planet muttered after a moment.

Perplexed, everyone's consciousness drifted to the battle, and then to where Artos was…

"Wait, he seems to be there, even the heat and the noises but…" Olidammara opened her eyes wide.

"HE'S IN TARBES!"

Underground Tarbes, in a wooden rectangle made to resemble the interior of the ship to the last detail, Artos, Basileus and Sfor ended the hum and the chant, and the next moment, from Louise's and Charlotte's look alike bodies, two spheres, one dark and one white, emerged, and as they began merging with the Void's one, Arty fell on the ground, his body slowly turning to dust, as did that of Basileus.

"To pay the price of good, evil must be paid. To pay the price of evil, good must be paid. All that remains after the void is the price of innocence, a price many in this room paid." Sfor muttered, as he slowly moved closer to the one remaining sphere, which was now a grey color, the containment sphere was actually bulging, ready to crack.

"Okay smart boy, you got me, what's your plan now?" Olidammara's avatar appeared in the middle of the room, looking at the skull with a perplexed look.

Sfor muttered:

"Have you ever wanted, to touch something, but lacked the hands to do that?" as Sfor dashed head on in the sphere, Olidammara's avatar stared wide eyed, as she barely managed, and heck, only because she was the Goddess of thievery and swift at that too, to escape the explosion which rocked through the village of Tarbes, engulfing Tristain, and being seen even from the battlefield near the forest of Alder.

"What…was that?" was the general murmur of the gods, as they suddenly realized their time was over. They had to go back.

As they tried, however, they realized they couldn't.

They couldn't go back.

They couldn't DAMN MOVE from that plane, and as they slowly would come to realize, they had been the one getting exiled…because their way in, and out, the two portals of negative and positive energy, were no longer there, thus bringing to a failure all other gates, and with the death of Asmodeus and Orcus, the gates created by them had been shut closed, as no other demon lord or devil lord wanted to face what had killed those two.

Mechanus, begrudgingly, had no choice: he had to accept that Artos Basileus Sfor would have to take on the mantle of all the gods he had exiled, and on his hand, Artos was actually pleased with the result.

Olidammara stopped toying with the man, and confessed he actually was a female cross dresser, while Garl didn't know wherever to congratulate him or to prank him and Yondalla simply shook her head at the thought of having lost that poor lost soul of a Zick. Boccob simply raised his head from his book, and, after a moment, bro-fisted Artos.

*Finale*

God Artos, High Deity of the pantheon, stood yawning near the beach by the side of the Fertek.

He was at ease now. He smiled slowly to the bundle of green hair that was his first born, and looked to his right side, to see Mathilda sigh, as she had to, once more, remove sand from the boy's head.

"I say, I don't get it: why can't demigods simply learn *not* to have sand in their hair? And ears?"

"He's not yet a Demigod, honey. I still have to give him his rank, but I'll wait until he's grown up and mature enough."

"You know, if the Ghorzun is an island, why don't we have a trip to the mainland?" as Mathilda suggested that, Artos sighed shaking his head.

"I'd like to, but I'm having trouble enough getting used to the Domains I have, as some clash with one another, I'd like to avoid meeting some gods of foreign pantheons for a while."

"Foreign pantheons?" Mathilda queried perplexed.

"Sure…woe the day someone thought cows could pray to cow gods and cats to cat gods, since it stuck around…Egyptian, Nordic, Asgardian, Oriental…too many gods to count. I'm having a headache just thinking about the annual meeting…I'll be sure to avoid mentioning how my great plan worked out…don't like Loki's glint in his eyes every time he asks about that."

"Fine big shot: explain to me again what your big bad plan actually was, because I swear, I'll never understand half of it."

Artos smiled, and then replied with a wide grin:

"There were only three parts of it:

Conning, Testing, Execution.

First off, I had to con everyone in believing my plan worked in a set of small step, or pebbles, keeping them up with paranoid behaviors, and worries. They had to think I was hell-bent on power to crush them, and so I kept doing things that influenced me into becoming *the Founder's chosen* The Brimir reborn, and so on.

Second, I had to test things, for example in Newcastle, I tested the strength of the void by throwing an artifact in the middle of the explosion that Louise launched, and since it actually destroyed it, I realized it was a pretty good magic. I had actually previously tested my theory that summoning could be reversed, by calling to me Guendaline, and from there I experimented with the undeads summoned by me in the castle, then by killing personally Wales and trying to send him back, a fact which didn't work through teleport, but it *did* work through a gate spell. Furthermore, I realized his royal magic wasn't going to cut it at that time."

"So then you were an evil bastard from the beginning?" Mathilda queried, earning herself a scowled face from Artos.

"No! I was the good guy of the trio: what the gods failed to realize was that flip coin was but one epic spell…and I am a really old Wizard…it was difficult to hide my thoughts from the gods, but my thought's thoughts'? That was easier, so another reason for Sfor and Basileus to actually enter Louise's mind was that: make the plan as foolproof as possible before coming back. Then, you must recall that I prefer simple things, because they work the best." As he pointed that out, Mathilda nodded.

"I basically based everything on misunderstandings, Mathilda, by the time the plan was down I knew what I had to do: the default evil mastermind plan of calling forth an army, preparing for war in that world to take it over and forcing the good guys," said with a smirk of anger, "to play their cards. Which they did, when they exponentially increased the number of interventions, from shooting me down from the sky to calling hundreds of their clerics to war in another plane that, mind you, had yet to be attached to the wheel, and thanks to the aid of the spirits of water, earth, air and fire, I managed to have them *naturally* select only certain areas to influence. So I did the only thing possible: I spoke to Mechanus, who is neutrality, no matter what."

"When did you speak with him? Before or after faking your death?"

"I was dead alright, but I knew that souls would travel back to their original plane, I was pretty sure on it, but I needed proof to be sure, it was essential for the later part of the plan."

"Which was?"

"When my soul got back in my body, I didn't immediately move, but used the spell, Flip Coin, to call forth Basileus in my stead, who then went to speak with Mechanus, once Mechanus accepted the terms I had brought forth, and what I offered in exchange."

"What was it?"

"I'm getting to it! I offered him transgressors of the law among the gods and punishment for them…as long as he would have waited three years for it."

"You already knew that Louise would have charged in Tristania?"

"No, but I did control her thoughts through the use of a specific word *Sphynx*. I had a lot of nights alone with her, and so I inserted fail safes devices in case she ever realized something was off."

"Like what?"

"Like me being able to alter memories. Which I did on the queen of Gallia to convince her to wage war, instead of simply barricading herself in the cities, or which I did on Joseph to convince him to actually take an interest in fighting for the Germanian's side, and in taking on the evil gods worship."

"So wait, you reinforced the evil side?"

"I also reinforced the good side. I camouflaged myself as a fiery knight in white armor, and saved Agnes from death in Tristania, all because I wasn't able to sense, as I first thought I would be, who was the portal of good energy. It was only later that I came to the idea that it had to have been split, since evil gods came from Germania, and good ones from Gallia…it was clear: one had to be in Gallia, and the other in Germania."

"So…you just had over a million people to check?"

"No, I narrowed it down, and there was one more failsafe device inserted into the thirteen year old red-head: she would have woken up and dashed in my defense, had any good gods entered the room."

"Why the good gods and not the evil ones, or the neutral ones?"

"Neutrals, like that thief that entered your mind in the camp at the time, would simply act for playing, and, you were knocked cold and thus you didn't know, she actually brought you back to the outskirts of the Germanian camp and left you there, which forced me to intervene to save you, nearly breaking away the truth of the matter. The evil ones were more on carnage and slaughter, and wouldn't have passed up on an occasion to do some army destruction,"

"Oh my knight in shining armor, what is the truth?" Mathilda muttered, while she rolled her eyes over and forced her son not to eat the tasty looking sand.

"That I didn't actually want to fight the gods. Heck, I am not suicidal. I wanted to have them removed from play, have them stashed elsewhere, so that I could return home together with those I held dear. Furthermore, I knew I couldn't do it alone, so, after brief pondering, I realized that since I had flip-coin available, and it worked for Basileus who filled me in with what Sfor and he were doing, I realized I could actually call them all back…in different bodies. The first to go back was Basileus, who, however, feigned being me for a while, grabbed Louise, and dropped her in Albion, after establishing a mental link and keeping up the façade of there being more than one of them, a fact that Sfor had done before."

"So you stayed here to strengthen the army? The one you later sent to their death, or to their own back in Halkeginia?"

"Oh no, I summoned also Sfor, and with those two keeping tabs on Louise and the rest, using illusions when needed, I hid in Tarbes, preparing the stage, and since I was of good alignment, nobody tried to find me."

"So…you basically washed your hands clean of everything?"

"No, but I needed the gods distracted from me and concentrated on Basileus and Sfor for the most possible time, that's why I swiftly summoned Albert Von Riktofen and Professor Colbert to Basileus' side, while Zick was with him, blinded by the promise of riches, I hoped we would have gone with plan B, since if Basileus had fallen in battle, then Sfor would have retreated from the battle and would have waited for him reappearing in his phylactery."

"And you being in Tarbes would have claimed everything. That was opportunistic of you." Mathilda replied pointing that out.

"IT would have been a good guy being god, instead of having, as of now, three different gods who are the same person, yet everyone now has his head...think the lives Sfor took, or Basileus enslaved."

"Yeah, not caring, I'm with the good guy who treats me like a pampered queen, so get on with the story of your diabolical plan: What is it that you actually *did* in the end?"

"I removed the energy, because in the end it's just energy, from the bodies of Louise and Charlotte's twin sister, who after the death of Riktofen had to take on both sides of the portal. Still, they would have clashed without a middle ground to meet, and that's where Louise's explosion came into being."

"You chopped her right hand off."  
"Basileus was there, not I, she risked dispelling the containment sphere, as did Colbert, which is why I had to have my own apprentice shot down and killed…in any case, with the explosion contained…"

"How did you contain it? I mean, you did say it worked in killing demons and devils"

"The dispel magic of the void system, Sfor sent me the way it worked, and I practically merged the spell with a sphere of Otiluke, It wouldn't have matter how much it grew, the borders would have been absorbed and nullified. A feat I did with the other two of infinite negativity and infinite positivity, merging them all together and finally having Sfor dash straight through it, while having in his gems the souls of myself, Basileus, yours, Tiffania's, Louise's, her mother and her two sisters."

"So…how did *he* get back?"

"He slipped through the crack in reality made by the explosion, and the only one who actually managed to follow him was the avatar of Olidammara, who was, last I recall his face from what I was seeing, scared senseless." As Artos chuckled at the thought, he kept speaking.

"Then Sfor broke the gems, releasing the souls and letting us back to life with the Unlimited Wish spell, having become a god, he chose me and Basileus for extra *push* in the god pantheon, and he recreated the destroyed gems, and after I patched up Louise's hand, I pointed out the problems of sending them back."

"A feat you basically weren't able to do." Mathilda added, recalling how Tiffania had come to the Wizard's aid by erasing, and using void magic for the first time too, the Valliére's family memory.

"No, and I still believe it was an underhanded trickery to give them false memories…but there was no way to send them back, and I did owe something to Louise for all the suffering I brought her through…ignorance is bliss for some."

"I have a final question."

"Ask away."

"Why would the ultra-evil Sfor actually want to make you deities?"

"Do you know what it is, to wish for hands? To wish for eyes when you have seen before and now you cannot? Do you know what it means to vehemently wish for something, something you know that normally you will never receive, and finally get there?"

"You forced him to."

"Binding rules agreement stated clearly that, if a persona had acquired conscience, it would have been best to abide by all rules entailed, last of which being that, if one persona managed, by some twist of fate, to get another body and achieve godhood, it should make the other persona arise too."

"…there's no way I'm believing that." Artos shrugged and snapped his finger.

An enormous scroll appeared right in front of them, even when closed, it seemed massive.

"Over ninety-nine thousands of possible corollaries, variables, and possible happenings compose the Binding rules agreement. And this is just the first scroll."

"…that's why Sfor wanted hands so badly?"

"It's a pain to write your thoughts down and write very important stuff down too…"

"So both Basileus and Sfor actually forced you to do two evil things right?"

"Actually, only in part: Sfor had wanted the pink-haired girl dead at the end of it all, but since he had kept showing her some memories, that's why I could bring it down to a less terrible punishment, and since he *did* break the trust, he paid it back by saving as many members of that girls family as possible."

"And Basileus?"

"He wanted me to keep quiet about the whole plan to you until it was over…I would have told you otherwise."

"Even with the gods hearing every thought and word?"

"Even then."

As the two set of lips met, someone, on the far side of the beach, made a puking face and sighed raising his eyes to the sky.

"Oh Great god Basileus give me strength not to smack down your other self." As the pink-haired girl spoke so, she received a small breeze of wind that ruffled her hair, as, while she hadn't heard a word, she was seeing those two act lovey-dovey, when they had meeting to be at with the other two gods, in less than a hour!

"I still suspect there's more to it though." Mathilda whispered, looking into the green eyes of Artos, who grinned back at her.

"You're right. I had a set of other plans ready, from using the energy of the planes as bombs and destroy everything, to forcefully bringing to life Brimir himself, and make him a new *god*. I even feigned being the chosen of the god of secrets and of the god of tyrants, when it was needed, Handenburg gave a speech *I* prepared for him, and there were a lot of other plans I could have gone with…so in one way or the other…"

"You would have had a winning deck?"

"Precisely…that's what being a planner actually means."

"That's why I can't defeat you at chess."

"You fare well against Guendaline."

"She's a crow!"

"Please, she's able to tear a new hole on any Tarrasque she encounters."

"…what's a Tarrasque?"

With the final words echoing through the sound of waves crashing against the sandy beach, the tale of how a man, who became a wizard, who became a lich, who became a demilich, and who finally became three gods, comes to an end.

_The End  
_

Omake:

"I was once the most mystical god of all the pantheon,

When Olidammara betrayed me she made a mistake!"

"Shut up and walk Wee Jas!"

"You shut it up Gruumsh! We already sang your song, so why can't I sing mine!"  
"Because you're tone deaf!"

"Speaks the Dwarf who can't even find a damn steel vein now!"

"What's your problem! Sure, there aren't any dwarves right now, but a couple of centuries and you'll see!"

"Kurtulmak wants Kobolds. Kobolds."

"Hey guys, I was thinking, what about going fishing?"

"Shut it Obad-Hai!"

"Pouty aren't you, Elhonna?"

"Turn out that, difference asides, she and Nerull have the hots for one another."

"VECNA SHUT YOUR TRAP!"

"Touched a nerve of yours heh Nerull? Thought you'd have them all dead though…" *giggle*.

"Please kill me."

"Oh man up Pelor! Let's throw boulders around!"

"I will most gladly accept that challenge, Kord, if it pleases you!"

"Yeah Heironeus, go play," *snicker* "idiot."

"I heard that Hextor!"

"Oh my, what are you going to do, call mom?"

"Sniff…WE DON'T HAVE A MOM!"

"Oh stop crying you all!"

"SHUT UP LOLTH!" *general yell of the strange company of assorted guys*

"Nobody loves me…this is racism I tell you."

"So, what's the mission about?"

"We've got to slay an evil ancient dragon that feeds on void users for the pope."

"Onwards, TO GLORY!"

"somebody, throw a sock into his mouth."

**Author's Notes.**

**The mummy was actually the spell *Create greater undead* given sentience.**

**Louise's rant was pure paranoia, obviously.**

**Hope you liked the Omake.**

**The reason no elements work for the guys, or elemental summonings, is because of the ancient spirits of Halkeginia, who sided with Artos.**

**The *ancient evil dragon tm* of doom makes a cameo appearance. **

**It's been a pleasure having you as my readers, really. **

**(especially because you kept up with the clear Disney songs reference without batting an eyelid)**


End file.
